At the extreme high end&mdash;Halcro, VTL, Boulder, etc.&mdash;reviewers gush about a lack of character. If you're paying $20,000, you want a preamplifier or power amp to disappear. At those price points we also want extreme, unfatiguing resolution, and noise that's well below what most people would consider audible. But at those prices, an <I>absence</I> of character is definitely something most people aspire to.

The good news: Domestic audio has survived its first half century and continues to live above ground. The bad news: At an age when most hobbies can enjoy the luxury of splintering into smaller factions that hate each other with impunity, ours isn't big enough. There are too few audiophiles on Earth to indulge that kind of specialization, let alone support the very different magazines that would ensue&mdash;so we'll never get to enjoy such promising titles as <I>Liberal Tube Lover</I> (not that I didn't try), <I>The Elderly Skeptic</I>, or, of particular interest, <I>Cable Hating for People Who are Barely Audiophiles in the First Place</I>.

The good news: Domestic audio has survived its first half century and continues to live above ground. The bad news: At an age when most hobbies can enjoy the luxury of splintering into smaller factions that hate each other with impunity, ours isn't big enough. There are too few audiophiles on Earth to indulge that kind of specialization, let alone support the very different magazines that would ensue&mdash;so we'll never get to enjoy such promising titles as <I>Liberal Tube Lover</I> (not that I didn't try), <I>The Elderly Skeptic</I>, or, of particular interest, <I>Cable Hating for People Who are Barely Audiophiles in the First Place</I>.

The good news: Domestic audio has survived its first half century and continues to live above ground. The bad news: At an age when most hobbies can enjoy the luxury of splintering into smaller factions that hate each other with impunity, ours isn't big enough. There are too few audiophiles on Earth to indulge that kind of specialization, let alone support the very different magazines that would ensue&mdash;so we'll never get to enjoy such promising titles as <I>Liberal Tube Lover</I> (not that I didn't try), <I>The Elderly Skeptic</I>, or, of particular interest, <I>Cable Hating for People Who are Barely Audiophiles in the First Place</I>.

The good news: Domestic audio has survived its first half century and continues to live above ground. The bad news: At an age when most hobbies can enjoy the luxury of splintering into smaller factions that hate each other with impunity, ours isn't big enough. There are too few audiophiles on Earth to indulge that kind of specialization, let alone support the very different magazines that would ensue&mdash;so we'll never get to enjoy such promising titles as <I>Liberal Tube Lover</I> (not that I didn't try), <I>The Elderly Skeptic</I>, or, of particular interest, <I>Cable Hating for People Who are Barely Audiophiles in the First Place</I>.

All of a sudden, it seems there's a renaissance in in-ear monitors. Used to be there was just <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/805">Etymotic</A&gt;, but now Etymotic, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/504shure">Shure</A&gt;, and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/1204ultimate">Ultimate Ears</A> are all producing high-performance in-ear headphones. It's almost enough to make me suspect we audiophiles have become a marketing juggernaut.

All of a sudden, it seems there's a renaissance in in-ear monitors. Used to be there was just <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/805">Etymotic</A&gt;, but now Etymotic, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/504shure">Shure</A&gt;, and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/1204ultimate">Ultimate Ears</A> are all producing high-performance in-ear headphones. It's almost enough to make me suspect we audiophiles have become a marketing juggernaut.

All of a sudden, it seems there's a renaissance in in-ear monitors. Used to be there was just <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/805">Etymotic</A&gt;, but now Etymotic, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/504shure">Shure</A&gt;, and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/1204ultimate">Ultimate Ears</A> are all producing high-performance in-ear headphones. It's almost enough to make me suspect we audiophiles have become a marketing juggernaut.

Gazing at the prototypes of Peter Bizlewicz’s forthcoming Panorama loudspeakers, I couldn’t help wondering if our beloved canine Baci Brown would either attack them as hostile intruders or try to mount them in a futile assertion of alpha dominance. Yes, not only the closest thing to alien invaders so far encountered at the show, but also visually hilarious, these speakers demanded a listen.

Those are the words that came to me as I began listening to the diminutive set-up in the room sponsored by Acoustic Sounds. As Eric Bibb & Needed Time made beautiful music on their Opus 3 LP, <I>Good Stuff</I>, I gazed at a pair of Manley Labs Snapper Monoblocks ($4250) and Stirling Broadcast LS3/5a V2 Speakers ($1695/pair) sitting on Target Audio MR 28 Speaker stands ($299), as well as a Silver Circle Audio Pure Power One 5.0 power transformer ($5000 with Vesuvius power cord). Interconnects, power cords, and loudspeaker cables were also from Silver Circle Audio.