LATEST ADDITIONS

As readers of the <I>Stereophile</I> eNewsletter will be aware, the twin subjects of distributing music around my home and integrating my iTunes library of recordings into my high-end system have occupied much of my attention the past year. I bought an inexpensive Mac mini to use as a music server, using an <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/505apple">Airport Express</A> as a WiFi hub, which worked quite well, but my big step forward was getting a Squeezebox. I described this slim device in the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/images/newsletter/306Bstph.html">mid-March</…; and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/images/newsletter/406Bstph.html">mid-April</…; eNewsletters; I urge readers to read those reports to get the full background on this impressive device. In addition, the forums and Wiki pages on the <A HREF="http://www.slimdevices.com/dev_overview.html">Slim Devices website</A> offer a wealth of information on getting the most from a Squeezebox.

My first encounter with the Acarian Al&#243;n IV was at the 1992 Las Vegas WCES. I was doing the show report dealing with speakers, and there was already enough advance buzz about the Al&#243;n IV that I put it on my "Speakers I Must Listen To" list. And listen I did, at some length, and came away impressed with their open quality and well-defined soundstage. In discussing reviewing assignments with John Atkinson, I told him that the Al&#243;n IV was one of the speakers I wouldn't mind spending some time with. (The list also includes the WAMM, the MartinLogan Statement, and the Apogee Grand, but I'm not holding my breath.)

In audiophile circles, it is the "Stuart"&mdash;electronics designer Bob Stuart of the Boothroyd-Stuart collaboration&mdash;who has received most recognition. The contribution of industrial designer and stylist Allen Boothroyd has gone relatively unremarked. Yet as I unpacked Meridian's D600 "Digital Active" loudspeaker, I was struck by Boothroyd's ability to make the humdrum&mdash;a rectangular box loudspeaker&mdash;seem more than just that. The man has one hell of an eye for proportion. From the first Orpheus loudspeaker of 1975, through the Celestion SL6 and '<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/744">SL600</A&gt; (where AB did the industrial and package design), to this latest Meridian loudspeaker design, his brainchildren look "right," to the extent of making competing designs appear at minimum over-square and clumsy, if not downright ugly.

Okay maybe Kate Moss wasn’t so far wrong.

It might be a duck anyway&mdash;or at least it was <I>meant</I> to be.

Huckleberry auditions for the role of MGM logo cat.