Because loudspeakers interact with the acoustics of the room in which they are used, optimizing their positions within that room pays major dividends. Inexpensive speakers, optimally set up, may well outperform more expensive models just plonked down willy-nilly.

Yet another amp from Colorado! This is the third amp to come my way from that state (the others being the Spectrascan and the Rowland Research), and at this point, after living with it for a couple of months, I'm quite comfortable in declaring the Boulder 500 to be one helluvan amp.

Yet another amp from Colorado! This is the third amp to come my way from that state (the others being the Spectrascan and the Rowland Research), and at this point, after living with it for a couple of months, I'm quite comfortable in declaring the Boulder 500 to be one helluvan amp.

<I>Dateline&#151;Chicago, May 30, 9:00pm.</I> Exploding fireworks lit up the sky above the Chicago river as 200 leading high-end designers gathered in the Hotel Intercontinental for <I>Stereophile</I>'s 30th Anniversary banquet. After a repast of four gourmet courses and five wines, the time came for after-dinner speeches to celebrate <I>Stereophile</I>'s past and high-end audio's future. <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/593">Publisher Larry Archibald</A> described his adventurous transition from the high-end car business to risky publishing. Introducing <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/historical/712">J. Gordon Holt</A>, he praised JGH's uniquely lucid writing and his unflinching insistence that equipment designed to reproduce music should be judged on its ability to do just that&#151;the unconventional view that launched high-end audio.

<I>Dateline&#151;Chicago, May 30, 9:00pm.</I> Exploding fireworks lit up the sky above the Chicago river as 200 leading high-end designers gathered in the Hotel Intercontinental for <I>Stereophile</I>'s 30th Anniversary banquet. After a repast of four gourmet courses and five wines, the time came for after-dinner speeches to celebrate <I>Stereophile</I>'s past and high-end audio's future. <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/593">Publisher Larry Archibald</A> described his adventurous transition from the high-end car business to risky publishing. Introducing <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/historical/712">J. Gordon Holt</A>, he praised JGH's uniquely lucid writing and his unflinching insistence that equipment designed to reproduce music should be judged on its ability to do just that&#151;the unconventional view that launched high-end audio.

<B>WAGNER: <I>Glenn Gould Conducts &amp; Plays Wagner</I></B><BR>
<I>Siegfried Idyll</I>, original chamber version.* Piano Transcriptions (Gould): <I>Die Meistersinger</I>, Prelude to Act I; <I>G&#246;tterd&#228;mmerung</I>, Dawn &amp; Siegfried's Rhine Journey; <I>Siegfried Idyll</I><BR>
</I>Glenn Gould, piano, piano 4-hands (overdubbed), conductor; members of the Toronto Symphony<BR>
Sony Classical SK 46279 (CD only). Kevin Doyle,* Kent Warden, Frank Dean Dennowitz, engs.; Glenn Gould,* Andew Kazdin, prods. ADD. TT: 71:00