LATEST ADDITIONS

In this, its 50th year of company operations, <A HREF="http://www.phasetech.com/">Phase Technology</A> announced and demonstrated a new type of loudspeaker system. The series, named dARTS for Digital Audio Reference Theater System, is obviously aimed at the custom-install, home-theater market, but the components and concepts are applicable to music reproduction in any number of channels. As described by PT's director of sales and marketing, Tony Weber, the dARTS system is (1) modular and (2) actively powered and equalized by DSP, incorporating <A HREF="http://www.audyssey.com/">Audyssey</A>'s MultiEQ XT for digital room correction.

Let's suppose that every audiophile is granted one birthday gift wish this year. If your birthday was this week, what audiophile gift would be at the top of your list?

When Wilson Audio Specialties' Peter McGrath offered me a pair of MAXX2 loudspeakers to review, I reminded him of just how small (15' by 21' by 8') my room is, and how <I>close</I> I sit to any speakers in it.

The first epiphany I experienced in blind audio testing took place in the Dunfey San Mateo Hotel, in Northern California. We were stuffed into a largish, well-lit room in which dozens of listeners sat in chairs, and others stood around the back or sat on the floor. Up front were two large <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/506">B&W Matrix 801</A> speakers on tall stands spaced far apart, behind them, opaque curtains hid a small pile of audio equipment. John Atkinson and Will Hammond stood at stage left.

<B>JOHN PRINE: <I>Fair & Square</I></B><BR>
Oh Boy OBR-034 (CD). 2005. John Prine, prod.; Gary Paczosa, prod., eng.; Thomas<BR>
Johnson, Brandon Bell, asst. engs. AAD? TT: 62:16<BR>
Performance ****&#189;<BR>
Sonics ****&#189;

<I>New cable:</I> <A HREF="http://www.rivercable.com">River Cable</A> has announced a new speaker cable called Flexygy 8, which employs eight conductors in a flat, flexible topology with "tremendous amounts of copper." Boasting a "unique ratio of low resistance-to-capacitance," Flexygy 8's capacitance is rated at 10pF/ft. Additionally, Flexygy 8 is touted as "an installation dream, [it goes] under carpets, along baseboards, with a super flexibility that can’t be beat in a cable with an aggregate AWG of 7."

Ibrahim Ferrer, one of the best-known practitioners of the Cuban vocal music known as <I>son</I>, died in Havana on August 6 of multiple organ failure. He had returned, ill, from a European tour several days previously, and then been hospitalized.