The first loudspeaker I heard from the Canadian company PSB was the Stratus, an affordably priced ($1400/pair), two-way tower with a soft-dome tweeter and an 8" woofer. The Stratus had benefited from designer Paul Barton's being able to use the anechoic chamber at the Canadian government's National Research Center, in Ottawa. The Stratus was reviewed for Stereophile by J. Gordon Holt in our May 1988 issue; he described the speaker as "eminently listenable," though Gordon also felt that it was "a little lacking in guts and liveliness." I had sat in on some of his listening sessions and had been impressed by what I heard.

Back in July 2011, we discussed the New Face of Vinyl. Young vinyl enthusiasts, Ben Meadors and Owen McCafferty, turned to Kickstarter to fund their dream of traveling across the country and meeting teens who were similarly interested in collecting and playing LPs. They met their goal of $6500 and made their way across the US, documenting every step along the way.

Now, Dust & Grooves’ Eilon Paz wants to document every face of vinyl. Paz, a Brooklyn-based photographer and vinyl enthusiast, plans to travel across the country, telling the great American story through its vinyl collectors.

Steve Shelley, rock-solid drummer of Sonic Youth and various other bands, has started a new record label called Vampire Blues. Releases will be available as LPs (with MP3 download cards) and as digital downloads. Will hi-res files be made available? We can hope.