LOMC for rock, blues, and jazz

Would anyone care to opine or recommend a LOMC cartridge in the $200-$500 range for the above genres? It will be mounted to a low/medium mass straight arm pipe (I also have the heavier "S" shaped pipe)for a JVC QL-Y66F table. I'm using a tubed Audio Experience Solo MC step-up into the MM side of a Cambridge 640-P phono amp. The Solo has quite a bit more gain than the MC side of the 640-P alone. I'm using Klipsch speakers so my system leans a little toward the bright side. Any and all opinions and/or recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

Western Government Sovereign Debt in Trouble

Interestingly PIMCO looks to be one of the 1st to move forward in its lack of confidence in government bonds of UK and America.
This could cause aggravation for both governments as it puts the interest up on future loans they look to secure.

Good read if interested:
http://community.nasdaq.com/News/2010-01...debt-in-trouble

Website wishes

Happy New Year to all at Stereophile, I'm certainly looking forward to the year's articles reports and reviews.

I have three wishes for the New Year (well, these are my top 3, I have plenty of others):

1. Make the blogs searchable.

2. Index the regular columns by products covered, not just issue number.

3. Remove the one-year-at-a-time limit on searches in the forum.

Computer audio: more memory (RAM) = better sound?

Don't recall the issue, much less specific review and/or article (tho' I think the reviewer was Wes Phillips)...anyway, WP noted something like more RAM memory yields better sound (all else being equal).
What's your experience?
How much can one expect to gain WRT sound fidelity when adding x amount of memory? Is there an upper threshold (a point of diminishing returns) -- e.g., 4GB RAM, etc?

Shifting gears a bit, anyone do a head to head comparison of new SSD drives vs. std. magnetic HD?

Direct Digital NAD M2

Direct Digital NAD M2

NAD is well known for its traditional, high-quality, and relatively affordable integrated amplifiers. At this year's CES, NAD introduced a revolutionary new integrated, the M2 ($5999). NAD's Stephen DeFuria (right) told me that the M2 is what NAD calls a "Direct Digital" amplifier&#151;there is <I>no</I> analog circuitry!

PrimaLuna's New Deal

PrimaLuna's New Deal

One of my favorite sounds of the show came out of the PrimaLuna room. Their sound was full of dynamics, texture, body and balance. Kevin Deal of Prima Luna (seen here like a proud Papa) was one of the few people at CES who made sure that folks visiting his room got the right mix of information, listening time, and fun. At least that was the vibe when I visited. At Kevin's feet are the DiaLogue Seven monoblocks ($5499 per pair), which Art Dudley <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tubepoweramps/primaluna_dialogue_seven_power… about</A> in the December 2009 issue of <I>Stereophile</I>.

Mysterious Mystère

Mysterious Mystère

One of my favorite things I experienced at CES this year was encountering new audio companies I'd never heard of, especially the ones that seem to be making high-quality components at real-world prices. One of these new surprises was Myst&#232;re Audio, distributed in the US by Kevin Deal. Made, like PrimaLuna, in China for Durob Audio, a Dutch company who has been making gear for over 30 years, Myst&#232;re showed a full line of amplification components but were playing their pa21 stereo power amplifier ($2995) and ca21 preamplifier ($2195).

Manley's iTube Amplifier

Manley's iTube Amplifier

I recently spent the past few months listening to and reviewing the new Manley Stingray iTube integrated amplifier (the review will appear the March issue of <I>Stereophile</I>). So when I stepped into the Manley room at CES, it felt a bit like I was back at my own listening room at home. The Stingray iTube is based on four EL84 tubes per channel and puts out 32Wpc in Ultralinear mode and 18Wpc in Triode mode. It features an Apple certified iPod dock in addition to its regular single-ended inputs.

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