Until Zenith, the first release on his own label, Inner Voice Jazz, pianist Marc Copland had never played with trumpeter Ralph Alessi, but they prove an ideal match. Joined by bassist Drew Gress (who has long played with both musicians) and drummer Joey Baron (who can play anything with anybody), this might turn out to be a "classic quartet."

What exactly is the message here?

If we live in an economy of ideas, then SXSW interactive is full of them, good, bad and indifferent.

This is by no means a new product. It was available in a stereo version as far back as 1961, and apart from a couple of minor refinements—the addition of a bias compensator and a new, lightweight shell—it is still the same arm, and it still has the reputation of being the perfectionist's tonearm.

While we were preparing our list of specifications for our perfectionist's tape recorder discussed elsewhere in this issue, we suddenly came to a screeching halt at the spec which started "Scrape flutter less than . . ."

What, we wondered, was the scrape flutter percentage in a recorder in which scrape flutter is audible? Would it be 0.5%? Or 1%? Or even 5%? We perused the readily available literature, and were informed that "scrape flutter is caused by the tape's tendency to move past the heads in a series of tiny jerks in stead of in a smooth gliding motion." We were also told that scrape flutter is due to friction between the tape and the head surfaces, plus the slight elasticity of the tape that allows it to stretch slightly before being dragged along by another silly millimeter, and that it sounds like a rough edge riding on all signal frequencies between about 3kHz and 8kHz.

We received the following email this afternoon. Sad, sad news. I shall remember the Richard Beers of unlimited energy and enthusiasm, pictured above at the 2013 T.H.E. Show in Newport Beach, CA. Richard made audio shows fun for all—exhibitors, press, and most all audiophiles of every persuasion. We’ll miss you, Richard.—John Atkinson

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Dear Industry Friends,

My name is Maurice Jung and I am the interim President for T.H.E. Show Newport. It is with heartfelt sorrow that I must inform you of the passing of Mr. Richard Beers. . .

AudioVision SF (1628 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94109) are having a free event Thursday March 17, 7:30–9:30pm, to preview Technics' new Audiophile 1200GAE 50th Anniversary Limited-Edition turntable and tonearm. This is not the Technics 1200 your local DJ played but a fully redesigned table with just about everything taken upstream except for the basic look!