Some manufacturers just sell you a product through their retailers and are done with it. Others reach out and make you feel part of an extended family. Is there an audio company that offers exceptional customer support? Who are they and what do they do?
Still burning in my bank of childhood memories are misty images of the glowing green lettering on the McIntosh tube preamps and tuners that populated the windows of the audio stores that once lined lower Manhattan's Cortlandt Street. Leonard's and most of those other retailers are long gone—as are most of the audio brands that shared their windows with McIntosh, and that once symbolized the might of American innovation and manufacturing. Even the World Trade Center, the controversial complex that replaced Cortlandt Street's "Radio Row," where the hi-fi industry was born, is tragically gone.
<I>"Happy is he who gets to know the reasons for things."
—Virgil</I>
The <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tonearms/400">Graham Engineering 1.5</A> tonearm, originally introduced in 1990, was a thoughtfully executed design that logically addressed all of the basics of good tonearm performance—geometry, resonance control, rigidity, dynamic stability—with effective, sometimes ingenious ideas, while providing exceptional ease and flexibility of setup. Over time, designer Bob Graham came up with ways to significantly improve the 1.5's performance, including the replacement of its brass side weights with heavier ones of tungsten, an improved bearing with a more massive cap, various changes in internal wiring, a far more rigid and better-grounded mounting platform, and a new, sophisticated ceramic armwand. (The original wand had hardly been an afterthought: its heat-bonded, constrained-layer-damped design consisted of an inner tube of stainless steel and an outer tube of aluminum.) The arm's name changed from the 1.5 to the 1.5t (tungsten), then the 1.5t/c (ceramic), and on to the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tonearms/401">2.0</A>, 2.1, and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tonearms/401/index7.html">2.2</A>.
<B><I>Sound Bites: 50 Years of Hi-Fi News</I></B><BR>By Ken Kessler and Steve Harris. London, IPC Media, 2005; paperback, 224 pages, 8.25" by 5.75", indexed. $29.95. Available in the US from Music Direct, <A HREF="http://www.musicdirect.com">www.musicdirect.com</A>, (800) 449-8333.
Andy Regan, NHT's senior vice-president of sales and marketing, could barely contain his glee. "I'm happy—no, I'm proud—no, I'm happy <I>and</I> proud to announce that Mary Cardas is NHT's North American sales manager."
On August 21, Directed Electronics, Inc. announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Polk Audio for $136 million in cash, with the deal to close in Q3 of 2006. Current Polk management will join Directed, and company founder Matthew Polk and Polk president Jim Herd will sit on Directed's home audio advisory board. File this one under the <I>you can't make this stuff up</I> department: Sandy Gross, founder of Directed's <I>other</I> loudspeaker company, Definitive Technology, already sits on the board, which makes Polk's presence there a homecoming of sorts, since Gross was a founding partner at Polk.
Secrets of the orgasm: "As orgasm lasts much longer in women than in men, it is easier to study using PET—male ejaculation is over so quickly it is hard to get a reliable reading."
Well, hydrophobic at any rate. Amazing stuff.
You need coolin', baby, I'm not foolin'<BR>
I'm gonna send you back to schoolin'<BR>
Way down inside honey, you need it<BR>
I'm gonna give you my love<BR>
I"m gonna give you my love<BR>
Whoa!