Jimi Hendrix: Valleys of Neptune

Jimi Hendrix: Valleys of Neptune

These are previously unreleased tracks, with a previously unknown fire and happiness. I pried the advance copy from <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/musicroom/robertbaird/">Robert Baird's kung-fu grip</a>, and listened to it on the hi-fi. I don't want to say too much about it because our April issue will include a whole psychedelic feature on the topic, as well as a formal album review, so I'll just say this: I need it.

Now on Newsstands: Stereophile, Vol.33 No.2

Now on Newsstands: Stereophile, Vol.33 No.2

The February 2010 issue of <i>Stereophile</i> is now on newsstands. What do you think of the cover? I like it more than any cover we’ve done since <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/now_on_newsstands_stereophile… October 2009 issue</a>, which featured the lovely <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/zu_essence_loudspeaker/">Zu Essence</a> speaker. The styling of the current cover may seem a bit soft and feminine (for <i>Stereophile</i>), but I think it’s elegant and graceful, like the speaker it frames. Vienna Acoustics’ Kiss is a beautifully finished three-way design with an integral stand. It uses a 1" silk-dome tweeter coincident with a 7" proprietary Spider-Cone midrange and a 9" Spider-Cone woofer. Wes wanted to make out with it. Can you blame him? He wrote: “The Kiss was exquisitely capable of revealing the emotional core of every type of music I played through it.”

Soundbar vs Surround Sound

I've been upgrading my home theater a bit recently and I put off the sound system until last, because it's usually the most cumbersome. I definitely want surround sound, but every home surround sound system I've ever seen installed in a house is lousy because the sound is projected to the center of the room and everyone is usually sitting around the edges.

The Catcher in the Rye is now under the rye.

JD Salinger is dead.

I never overly internalized Catcher in the Rye, but I remember the future English majors of the world carrying it around high school for two years straight so everyone could tell they'd read it.

Somehow, the book really affected one guy I knew and he became a little 'fuck all' for a while - sitting outside his ex-girlfriend's house watching her comings and goings, giving lectures to adults about love, breaking up every drinking (or other similar ingestant) session to remind us of his existantialist state...you know, the usual.

Man is a boy

My feet are cold and Paul Banks is howlin' "Man's no boy" (White noise and diamond nights, track 5)

I guess he don't know any vintage car/watch/toy collectors or audiophiles. For one, I am proud of being a boy. An old one maybe, but still. An odd one too perhaps, but anyways. Being a boy at heart is the quintessence of joy, and losing that joy is growing old and boring.

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