I've been chipping away for some time at the task of trying to put together a music lover's stereo system for about half the money of my last such effort: $2500 to $3750 now, <I>vs</I> around $7500 back in 2005. My timing was good: CD and DVD receivers are a hot product category, with several attractive new entries at various prices.

I've been chipping away for some time at the task of trying to put together a music lover's stereo system for about half the money of my last such effort: $2500 to $3750 now, <I>vs</I> around $7500 back in 2005. My timing was good: CD and DVD receivers are a hot product category, with several attractive new entries at various prices.

There is something especially exciting about a new loudspeaker design, if only because speakers are the component where one constantly hopes for the sonic miracle that will suddenly make it all sound real. No other component has the same overall impact in coloring the system, presents more room problems, or inspires more frustration on the road to the perfect system.

There is something especially exciting about a new loudspeaker design, if only because speakers are the component where one constantly hopes for the sonic miracle that will suddenly make it all sound real. No other component has the same overall impact in coloring the system, presents more room problems, or inspires more frustration on the road to the perfect system.

<I>A hot topic for discussion in recent issues of </I>Stereophile<I> has been the impact Home Theater has had on the High End. Some of the magazine's contributors&#151;<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/693awsi">J. Gordon Holt</A> and Corey Greenberg, for example&#151;have written that the advent of Home Theater means that we should expand the audio context of the magazine to include reviews of video components (footnote 1). Others, including Bob Harley, Tom Norton, and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/393awsi">myself</A&gt;, feel that we should <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/features/68">stick to what we know</A> and love&#151;audio&#151;and enter the new field only to advise </I>Stereophile<I>'s readers on how to achieve the best sound from a Home Theater system. However, missing from the debate in our pages so far have been any comments from those in the business of selling and demonstrating high-end products and, increasingly, Home Theater systems. Accordingly, this month I am running a guest editorial from a man who perhaps typifies the high-end, specialist retailer: Ken Gould of Audio Nexus (footnote 2). Please note that Mr. Gould's opinions are his own and do not represent those of the magazine.</I>&#151;<B>John Atkinson</B>

<I>A hot topic for discussion in recent issues of </I>Stereophile<I> has been the impact Home Theater has had on the High End. Some of the magazine's contributors&#151;<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/693awsi">J. Gordon Holt</A> and Corey Greenberg, for example&#151;have written that the advent of Home Theater means that we should expand the audio context of the magazine to include reviews of video components (footnote 1). Others, including Bob Harley, Tom Norton, and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/393awsi">myself</A&gt;, feel that we should <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/features/68">stick to what we know</A> and love&#151;audio&#151;and enter the new field only to advise </I>Stereophile<I>'s readers on how to achieve the best sound from a Home Theater system. However, missing from the debate in our pages so far have been any comments from those in the business of selling and demonstrating high-end products and, increasingly, Home Theater systems. Accordingly, this month I am running a guest editorial from a man who perhaps typifies the high-end, specialist retailer: Ken Gould of Audio Nexus (footnote 2). Please note that Mr. Gould's opinions are his own and do not represent those of the magazine.</I>&#151;<B>John Atkinson</B>

<I>A hot topic for discussion in recent issues of </I>Stereophile<I> has been the impact Home Theater has had on the High End. Some of the magazine's contributors&#151;<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/693awsi">J. Gordon Holt</A> and Corey Greenberg, for example&#151;have written that the advent of Home Theater means that we should expand the audio context of the magazine to include reviews of video components (footnote 1). Others, including Bob Harley, Tom Norton, and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/393awsi">myself</A&gt;, feel that we should <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/features/68">stick to what we know</A> and love&#151;audio&#151;and enter the new field only to advise </I>Stereophile<I>'s readers on how to achieve the best sound from a Home Theater system. However, missing from the debate in our pages so far have been any comments from those in the business of selling and demonstrating high-end products and, increasingly, Home Theater systems. Accordingly, this month I am running a guest editorial from a man who perhaps typifies the high-end, specialist retailer: Ken Gould of Audio Nexus (footnote 2). Please note that Mr. Gould's opinions are his own and do not represent those of the magazine.</I>&#151;<B>John Atkinson</B>

I have a little space heater that I keep in my kitchen because the kitchen is where it's coldest. The wind whips against our old apartment building and rattles the old windows and sets the sparrows and the starlings fluttering into my thin walls where they've made their nests. If there was ever any insulation in those thin walls, it must be long gone.