"At last!" I rushed to open the UPS package with the familiar Amazon logo. "It's arrived!"

"What's arrived?" My 13-year-old daughter Emily showed some uncharacteristic curiosity.

"The new Pink Floyd two-DVD set, P.U.L.S.E, which I've had on order for what seems like forever. It contains four hours of music!"

"What's that, like three Pink Floyd songs?"

"It's not just it doesn't work as well, it doesn't sound as good!"

Veteran audio reviewer Martin Colloms and I were taking a preprandial walk across London's Hampstead Heath, following Cream's reunion concerts at the Royal Albert Hall last May. Martin was getting animated:

"And don't ask about the whiskers!"

Of course, I had to ask about the whiskers.

Dr. Amar Bose, founder and CEO of the most successful privately-held consumer-electronics company in history, died Friday, July 12, at his home in Wayland, Massachusetts. He was 83.

Bose became interested in research in audio engineering and psychoacoustics after buying a stereo system and being disappointed by its sound . . .

Richard Kanter is the winner of our HRT Microstreamer USB DAC sweepstakes. Richard's been doing live sound recording and reinforcement at McCabes Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, California for the past 43 years. He still loves it! You can find out more about McCabes here.

Thanks for playing Richard!

It’s been a tough half year or so for Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips.