Stephen Mejias

Robert has asked me to review the new Sonic Youth album, Rather Ripped. You'd think I'd be thrilled about this. I would be, normally. But, so far, I find the new Sonic Youth album to be disappointing, an underachievement. Having to review the new Sonic Youth album is beginning to stress me out. Thus: this, therapy.

Today is a special Monday in Stereophile land. Today">http://blog.stereophile.com/wesphillips/061206ja/">Today is JA's birthday. Happy birthday, JA. Today is also Kristina Roman's first day with us.

Love,

Remember when we first met — standing at the bar, admiring the">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/121905thejukebox/">the jukebox's warm glow? How I somehow got around to telling you about that $90,000">http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/106con/index.html">$90,000 turntable? It almost seems silly now. The small talk of first meetings often does, I suppose, seem silly. But not ours. Nothing "silly" about it. And nothing small. I don't know what made me think I should mention it — this silly turntable — but, a day later, you'd call and leave a message saying you'd like to hear more. "Fascinating," was the word you used.

This mild-mannered bunch of classical guitarists had me wanting to jump up on my seat and curse my brains out.

Paul Lim then introduced me to the diminutive NuForce Reference 9 monoblock amps ($4200/pair) in their very attractive Rose Copper Special Edition finish. I'm all about the fancy colors, y'all.

Though the finish of the Cain & Cain speakers was lovely, all I could really focus on were their Frisbee-like belly buttons. I'm a little bit sorry to admit that, because I found the speaker itself unattractive, I lost interest in what it had to say. I couldn't get around the looks to examine the sound. This is something I will have to work on.