LATEST ADDITIONS

In a world where brand is everything and making money is the bottom line, it should come as no surprise that if there's a buck to be made, any deal is possible. But who would have imagined, 30 years ago, that the bad boys and girls of rock'n'roll would be married to the then-much-scorned icon of safe, watered-down elevator music?

Surfing the Usenet newsgroups and the Web audio forums recently, it struck me that the old wisdom is correct: If you keep your mouth shut, you won't say anything with which anyone can disagree. A topic that seems to be of perennial interest is how Stereophile chooses the products it reviews. Yet the more I have explained how it's done, the greater the criticism that is heaped on the magazine.

If the devil is in the details, then Beelzebub has taken up residence in the collections of cables we use to connect our components. Reviewing the stuff is tough enough, but things are even more difficult for the average audiophile: Inevitably, the wire that sounds fabulous in the store or in your friend's system doesn't work worth a hoot in your own system, and you're left where you began. Equally inevitably, the wire that does work best carries a price more often seen in Tiffany's or Harry Winston. It's enough to drive a hi-fi nut to drink. So relax, pour yourself a nice glass of wine, and sit right back to hear the tale of Robert Lee and his amazing wires...

The use of elliptical plastic ports in some loudspeakers has proven expensive for Harman International Industries.