Added to the Archives This Week

Back in 1985, J. Gordon Holt wrote: "It seems, these days, that many of us audiophiles have become so preoccupied with the minutiae of sound reproduction that we haven't even noticed that it doesn't sound like music any more." He was talking about the obsession with soundstaging and detail at the expense of musical accuracy. In "Getting the Notes Right (Midrange Madness)," he renders his lesson in classic JGH style, observing that "I have played on this old saw in these pages for so many years that it has turned into a dead sawhorse, but somehow the message never seems to get through. There should be no harm done by beating it into the ground a little farther."

Martin-Logan has earned a reputation among audiophiles for successfully combining form and function in ways rarely achieved in the world of audio. Can something that looks as "bee-you-tee-ful" as the Martin-Logan SL3 loudspeaker actually deliver the sonic goods? "Yes," says Wes Phillips, "they're speakers. They really are gorgeous. And yes, the music really is coming from them, hard as it is to believe. Yes, they really do sound as good as they look. Okay? Okay? OKAY?"

And finally, another review from the pages of Stereophile Guide to Home Theater, this time featuring the Pioneer Elite PRO-200 60" rear-projection television. Lawrence B. Johnson reports that while this is quite an impressive-looking TV out of the box, he's not sure who it's really aimed at: "Pioneer has made its own bed here. I'm just not sure what video enthusiast would want to sleep in it."

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