Added to the Archives This Week

Michael Fremer says he has heard many phono preamps in his career as vinyl's pre-eminent advocate, but a few do stand out. MF lived with the Conrad-Johnson Premier 15 phono preamplifier for several months to see if it would be one of the medalists. Jonathan Scull also adds some thoughts on the Series 2 version.

For a bit of historical audio perspective, we go back to John Atkinson's 1988 review of the $1500/pair Acoustic Energy AE1 loudspeaker. JA ponders, "Has this new British company managed to pack a quart, perhaps even a half-gallon, into a pint-sized package?"

"Why had a high-end hi-fi magazine felt the need to produce a classical LP when the thrust of real record companies in 1989 is almost exclusively toward CD and cassette?" asks JA. All is explained in Poem: Stereophile Cuts an LP, wherein John Atkinson, the late Denis Stevens, and Richard Lehnert cover everything from the music and the musicians to how it was all recorded.

We then turn to the man on the sonic street as Readers Review Stereophile's Poem LP. From the mouths of the audiophile innocent to your computer's Internet ear.

Finally, the most recent installment in our "Recording of the Month" series for the online archives: Recording of March 1999, Bruce Springsteen: Tracks. Robert Baird discovers that Tracks is "just a taste of the unreleased Bruce. But what intriguing flavors."

X