I now own it on vinyl, too, of course, but four years ago, John Atkinson presented me with the SACD/CD dual-disc. It quickly <a href=" http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/101105kindofblue/ ">cured my headaches</a> and has remained one of my very favorite albums. Listening to it at least once a month keeps my mind and body healthy.

On August 17, 1959—50 years ago exactly—Columbia Records released Miles Davis’ <I>Kind of Blue</I>, which became not only the best-selling jazz album of all time but also one of the <I>best</I> jazz albums, period, the spearhead of the “modal” revolution.

This whole thing started up again when I tried to improve the phono-input section of my main system&#151;not to enhance its performance (although you might expect that to happen), but to provide a fairer, more flexible context for evaluating new cartridges.

This whole thing started up again when I tried to improve the phono-input section of my main system&#151;not to enhance its performance (although you might expect that to happen), but to provide a fairer, more flexible context for evaluating new cartridges.