I had no idea, back when I set out to put together a music lover's stereo system in the $2500&#150;$3750 range, that while I was beavering away the stock market would tank and credit markets would freeze up&#151;or that the federal government would print money to bail out overextended investment banks, take equity interests in commercial banks, and become the lender of only resort for GM, Chrysler, and Ford. I usually avoid even the hint of political commentary in my audio writing, but I can't resist passing along a quip I'm very proud of: I <I>told</I> all my friends that, if they voted for John Kerry, within four years we'd have socialism, and I was right (footnote 1).

Richard Sequerra was born in 1929 and raised in various parts of the US by his mother, who worked for the Department of State. By the time he was 20, he had launched a freelance career that has since spanned a wide range of technologies. During a stint at Marantz in the 1960s, he worked with Sidney Smith on that firm's famed Marantz 10B tuner, which was sold from 1964 through 1970. Subsequent products have included the Sequerra 1 tuner and the Metronome 7 loudspeaker, originally produced by Sequerra's firm Pyramid and now hand-assembled by its creator, who offers the most recent version via his <A HREF="http://www.sequerra.com">website</A&gt;, for less than half what it cost through retail channels when Sam Tellig praised it in the July 2007 <I>Stereophile</I>. Sequerra's newest transducers&#151;a self-amplified nearfield speaker and matching subwoofer designed for Internet music listening&#151;remain in prototype form; he hopes to sell or license the designs rather than manufacture and market them himself.

Richard Sequerra was born in 1929 and raised in various parts of the US by his mother, who worked for the Department of State. By the time he was 20, he had launched a freelance career that has since spanned a wide range of technologies. During a stint at Marantz in the 1960s, he worked with Sidney Smith on that firm's famed Marantz 10B tuner, which was sold from 1964 through 1970. Subsequent products have included the Sequerra 1 tuner and the Metronome 7 loudspeaker, originally produced by Sequerra's firm Pyramid and now hand-assembled by its creator, who offers the most recent version via his <A HREF="http://www.sequerra.com">website</A&gt;, for less than half what it cost through retail channels when Sam Tellig praised it in the July 2007 <I>Stereophile</I>. Sequerra's newest transducers&#151;a self-amplified nearfield speaker and matching subwoofer designed for Internet music listening&#151;remain in prototype form; he hopes to sell or license the designs rather than manufacture and market them himself.

Richard Sequerra was born in 1929 and raised in various parts of the US by his mother, who worked for the Department of State. By the time he was 20, he had launched a freelance career that has since spanned a wide range of technologies. During a stint at Marantz in the 1960s, he worked with Sidney Smith on that firm's famed Marantz 10B tuner, which was sold from 1964 through 1970. Subsequent products have included the Sequerra 1 tuner and the Metronome 7 loudspeaker, originally produced by Sequerra's firm Pyramid and now hand-assembled by its creator, who offers the most recent version via his <A HREF="http://www.sequerra.com">website</A&gt;, for less than half what it cost through retail channels when Sam Tellig praised it in the July 2007 <I>Stereophile</I>. Sequerra's newest transducers&#151;a self-amplified nearfield speaker and matching subwoofer designed for Internet music listening&#151;remain in prototype form; he hopes to sell or license the designs rather than manufacture and market them himself.

I have an article in the Arts & Leisure section of today’s <I>New York Times</I> about Andy Warhol’s album covers. Everyone’s seen the covers he designed for <I>The Velvet Underground & Nico</I>, with the banana that peels, and the Rolling Stones’ <I>Sticky Fingers</I>, with the zipper that unzips. But who knew that the pioneer of Pop art designed over 50 covers over the entire span of his career, and not just for pop albums but also for jazz, classical, and opera? His work, often signed, appeared on Blue Note, RCA, Columbia—all the giants—and echoed, or often anticipated, the style that he would cultivate not just as a commercial designer but as a gallery-and-museum artist (though he rarely distinguished between the two). A new, lavishly illustrated, fastidiously documented book, <I>Andy Warhol: The Record Covers, 1949-1987</I>, lays them all out. Read about it <A HREF= http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/arts/music/26kapl.html?ref=music >here</A>. Buy the book <A HREF= http://www.amazon.com/Andy-Warhol-1949-1987-Catalogue-Raisonne/dp/37913… >here</A>.