LATEST ADDITIONS

This month I am writing about five vintage loudspeakers you should hear before you die.

Why vintage? Because the best vintage gear offers an abundance of musically agreeable qualities that are missing from even the best contemporary gear.

Until the quiet comes, we can enjoy Flying Lotus’s new mixtape, Lovers Melt, Pt.III. Here in the Stereophile office, it’s been blowing our minds all week, helping us get through the beast that is “Recommended Components.” We hope you enjoy it, too.

Congrats to Josh Ray and Urban Fidelity for reaching their Kickstarter goal. With the funding necessary to get off and running, Urban Fidelity seems poised to make a big debut at this year’s Rocky Mountain Audiofest. In pictures, they're gorgeous, but I can’t wait to find out how these speakers really look and sound.

But at just $399/pair ($299/pair, if purchased before August 8), they seem like a bargain: floorstanding loudspeakers, made in the US, featuring several unique designs by independent artists.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

I spotted this familiar magazine in the lobby of the hospital where, just last Saturday, my sister gave birth to a healthy, handsome boy.

It was our March 2007 issue&#151someone needs to renew the hospital’s subscription. Flipping through its pages was like taking a walk back in time.

We've all read about how bookstores, appliance stores, and other bricks-and-mortar retailers are suffering with the increasing domination of Internet sales. That got me thinking about audio dealers. I've always believed that one can't really make an informed purchase of audiophile equipment without hearing it in a system properly set up by and at at a serious audio retailer. Here in New York City, we're blessed with six first-rate audio dealers in Manhattan alone, with more in the suburbs. I estimate that 90% of the products reviewed in Stereophile can be auditioned at a dealer or two within a two-hour drive of anywhere in the New York metropolitan area.

Back in July 2011, we discussed the New Face of Vinyl. Young vinyl enthusiasts, Ben Meadors and Owen McCafferty, turned to Kickstarter to fund their dream of traveling across the country and meeting teens who were similarly interested in collecting and playing LPs. They met their goal of $6500 and made their way across the US, documenting every step along the way.

Now, Dust & Grooves’ Eilon Paz wants to document every face of vinyl. Paz, a Brooklyn-based photographer and vinyl enthusiast, plans to travel across the country, telling the great American story through its vinyl collectors.

Steve Shelley, rock-solid drummer of Sonic Youth and various other bands, has started a new record label called Vampire Blues. Releases will be available as LPs (with MP3 download cards) and as digital downloads. Will hi-res files be made available? We can hope.