One of the visual highlights of the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show and HE 2003 in San Francisco was the <A HREF="http://www.penaudio.fi">Penaudio</A> speakers, sporting a unique sliced-wood veneer wrapped around diminutive two-way designs. While the speakers were easy on the eyes, it wasn't so easy to find a pair to audition in the US.
Back in the 1990s, I lusted mightily for the large ESP speakers with their tall, slim shapes and their angled driver panels. A large-room demo of the Concert Grands with Sonic Frontiers electronics still reverberates in my memory. Unfortunately, just as I evolved to the point where I could consider buying a pair of Concert Grands, the company folded its tents. Recently, I heard a rumor that ESP might be returning, and an email exchange with founder and designer Sean McCaughan has confirmed the good news.
The <I>2004 Stereophile Buyer's Guide</I> hits the newsstands this week. Within its 228 jumbo-sized and color-coded pages you'll find listings of every audio component currently available in the US (other than boomboxes and other portable players), along with their specifications and prices. It also includes what we feel is the most complete listing of audio manufacturer websites on the planet.
John Gourlay, <I>Stereophile</I>'s publisher since 1998, left the company at the beginning of November. John had been a valued collaborator and the moving force behind the launch of the <I>2004 Stereophile Buyer's Guide</I> (see related story). We all wish him well in his future career.
<B>ALBERT LEE: <I>Heartbreak Hill</I></B><BR>
Sugar Hill SUG-CD-3977A (CD). 2003. Albert Lee, Steve Fishell, prods.; Dave Sinko, Larry Getz, engs. AAD? TT: 43:51<BR>
Performance <B>****½</B><BR>Sonics <B>****</B>
"Imagine a lake," reads the <A HREF="http://www.nonoise.org">website</A> of the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse (NPC) , "filled with semi-tractor-trailer trucks, magically skimming across the water.
My friend <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/showarchives.cgi?409">Harvey Rosenberg</A>, who had more clever ideas in a day than most of us have in a lifetime, was a Tannoy loudspeaker enthusiast. I, on the other hand, had little experience with the brand before 1995, when Harvey invited me to come over and hear his then-new Tannoy Westminster Royals.
The talented loudspeaker engineer is a man who is always in competition with himself. When PSB's Paul Barton put the finishing touches on his Stratus Gold model back in 1990 (footnote 1), I'm sure he had more ideas in mind that he could have used in a flagship design. Yet the Gold offered so much performance at such a competitive price—$2000/pair in 1991, rising to $2100/pair by 1997, then $2400/pair for the the Gold <I>i</I>, an evolutionary development—that it was not surprising that Barton applied his talents to developing ranges of more affordable speakers, such as the best-selling <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/showarchives.cgi?580">Alpha</A> and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/showarchives.cgi?330">Image</A> series.
The audiophile fringe tends to foster some of the more perplexing approaches to getting good sound. What is the strangest audio product you've ever seen or heard?
Sony Music Entertainment and Bertelsmann Music Group could soon be one.