John Atkinson and Arnis Balgalvis audition the Avalon Eclipse loudspeaker, whose quasi-anechoic TDS response prompted JA to exclaim, "Boy, that's flat!" But is flat where it's at? AB thought so: "The sound I heard was truly outstanding."A different tag-team takes a listen to two generations of the PSB Stratus Gold loudspeaker. Both Thomas J. Norton and John Atkinson sit in the sweet spot and turn in their score cards. JA's notes, "Even without careful setup, it was obvious that something good was going on: the midrange was clean and uncolored, the stereo imaging well defined and stable, and the bass generous without being boomy."Between 1986 and 2001, several Stereophile savants listened to various versions of the Convergent Audio Technology SL-1 preamplifier. Here, for the first time, we've gathered all of their reports into a single collection. Anthony H. Cordesman, Jack English, Jonathan Scull, Russ Novak, and Robert Deutsch check in.
Richard Lehnert finds himself getting in touch with his mystical side in "Mono, Stereo, Digital: The Three Ages of Man." Lehnert examines audio's ineluctable progress, noting, "It is in just such well-lighted places that important truths can be hidden in plain sight."Finally, the most recent installment in our "Recording of the Month" series for the online archives, our Recording of November 1996, The Complete Columbia Miles Davis & Gil Evans Studio Recordings. Robert Baird comments, "After several delays and successive waves of anticipation, it seemed as if nothing, let alone the playing of mere mortals, could live up to the expectations surrounding Sony's ever-impending Miles and Gil box."
