A Babbage Difference Engine Built From Lego
John Atkinson just emailed this link asking, "Have you blogged this?" Well, no—although I do believe I emailed it to him back in ought-three. Disirregardless, it's a good'un.
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The Right Note
A 1959 Walt Kelly <I>Pogo</I> page commemorating the best note ever. Nowadays you'd never get away with humor this wordy, but the language is intoxicating.
Four Legged (Sub) Woofer
Putting the "fun" into "functional kitsch." Sure.
Big Bang Timeline
Cool interactive timeline that allows you to slide the point of reference along a timeline starting with the Big Bang and ending with . . . .
The Truth About the Roswell Dissection?
John Humphreys spills the beans.
Take a look at this photo of JA from his salad days and let us know what you think.
Speaking of misspent youth, we've now set up a "History of Stereophile" section in our new online <A HREF="http://forum.stereophile.com/photopost/" TARGET=NEW>Galleries</A>. Check out <A HREF="http://forum.stereophile.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=99&password=…; TARGET=NEW>this photo of JA</A> from his salad days and let us know what you think.
Industry Update
<I>Meet the new boss:</I> Tannoy has announced the promotion of sales and marketing director Andrzej Sosna to managing director of the Scotland-based loudspeaker manufacturer. The company's former managing director, Anders Fauerskov, will now assume the title of CEO of Tannoy's parent, TC Group, which bought the TGI group of companies, including Tannoy, in 2002. Sosna, in his role of product development director, has been called "the driving force behind Tannoy’s recent product successes."
Vacuum Tube Valley Audio and Music Expo
<A HREF="http://www.vacuumtube.com"><I>Vacuum Tube Valley</I></A>, "The Classic Tube Electronics Journal & Tube Audio Electronics Resource," is hosting the VTV Audio and Music Expo at the Piscataway Embassy Suites May 6–7, 2006. (Embassy Suites, 121 Centennial Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854. Tel: (732) 980-0500.)
Halcro Logic MC20 power amplifier
Within a few years of entering the US market, Australian audio manufacturer Bruce Halcro Candy cemented his place in audio history by designing a amplifier that Paul Bolin said (<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/683">in the October 2002 <I>Stereophile</I></A>) "could well justify the creation of a 'Class A+' amplifier category in 'Recommended Components'," and the low distortion characteristics of which prompted editor John Atkinson, a man who has elevated the craft of understatement to a high art, to reach for the word <I>astonishing</I>. That was the Halcro dm58 monoblock ($29,990/pair), which has only recently been superseded by the Halcro dm78.
dCS P8i SACD player
There are components that stick in a reviewer's memory long after they have been crated up and entrusted to the tender mercies of UPS. When I reviewed the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/305dcs">Verona Master Clock</A> from English company dCS in March 2005, the sound it allowed the combination of a <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/hirezplayers/814">dCS Verdi</A> transport, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/454">Purcell</A> upsampler, and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalprocessors/259">Elgar Plus</A> D/A processor to achieve from SACD was the best I had heard from my system—better, even, than I remember getting from the EMM Labs SACD transport and processor I had borrowed for a weekend a few months earlier. But at what price? The stack of four dCS components adds up to a cool $45k—"Yes, the complete dCS system is hip," I wrote in the conclusion to my review. "But $45k's worth of hip? That's a question <I>I</I> can't answer, I'm afraid, what with school fees and mortgages and taxes." The megabux dCS stack thus had to go back to the distributor at the end of the review period.