Stephen Mejias

Intern Ariel Bitran sent this around the office today, in an e-mail titled "Crying in My Cubicle."

Audiophiles and music lovers may be interested in Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music, the new book from music critic and Sound">http://soundopinions.org/">Sound Opinions cohost Greg Kot. The book is being billed as "the first definitive account of the digital music revolution," and takes an appreciative look at a world in which peer-to-peer file sharing and CD burning are commonplace tools. It can be argued that such technologies are not only blessings for independent musicians looking to gain wider audiences, but also gifts to the music lover who cannot get enough.

At last year's http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2008/010908future/ ">Consumer Electronics Show and http://blog.stereophile.com/fsi2008/040408muon/ ">Festival Son & Image, British loudspeaker manufacturer KEF caught a lot of eyes and ears with their shimmering, $140,000/pair Muon. Now the company has unveiled the Blade, an artful, sleek, stealthy looking thing, poised to draw similar attention.

I love the styling of the latest Marantz gear&#151strong and masculine without being overblown or audacious. Though the late '80s through early '90s saw Marantz move away from their high end roots, the last decade has been a return to form. Under the ownership of D&M Holdings, the respected audio company seems to be embracing their cherished past. In May 2008, Michael Fremer was extremely impressed by their SM-11S1">http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/508mar11s1/index.html">SM-11S1 Reference power amplifier. He wrote:

Fans of Shindo's gorgeous green and gold tube amplifiers will be excited to know that the Japanese manufacturer has just introduced (or re-introduced, I'm not sure) a new (or re-new, as the case may be) integrated amplifier.

And later in the">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/things_are_so_bad/">the night, I listened to Archie Shepp's Three For A Quarter, One For A Dime, which I understand is the darker, angrier, wilder side of a performance held at San Francisco's old Both/And Club on February 19, 1966.

And earlier in the">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/safe_sex_of_the_highest_order… night, I listened to an old Yazoo title: St. Louis Blues (1929-1935): The Depression, which has some amazing, moving cuts from Henry Townsend, Charley Jordan, Georgia Boyd, Peetie Wheatstraw, and Hi Henry Brown. Such pure, raw sounds are timeless, and are perhaps especially meaningful today.