In a moment, I will resume my ongoing quest to put together a music lover's stereo system for about half the cost of my last such effort (see my columns in the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/1005fifth">October</A&gt; and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/1205fifth">December</A&gt; 2005 issues): $3750 rather than $7500. But first I want to urge everyone who hasn't already done so to check out <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/208fifth/index3.html">the results</A> of the Five Great Art Songs of the Rock Era write-in competition announced in my February 2008 column. The winning entries are great&#151;really thought-provoking. Indeed, some of the lists, plus an unaccountably belated recollection, prompted me to put together my own alternate list. This list doesn't invalidate or replace my original one, but it benefited from the energy all the entrants (thanks, everyone) put into theirs. Here goes:

You'd think that setting up a pair of loudspeakers would be a piece of cake: Stick 'em where they look good, and be done with it. It <i>can</i> be as simple as that, but to get the <i>best</i> sound from your speakers, you'll have to do a bit more work.

We're lucky. There's always an enormous amount of great live music to be enjoyed in New York City, but this week is especially crammed with sound. The CMJ Music Marathon is here. As I type, our very own Mikey Fremer is moderating a discussion titled "Hi Fidelity for the Future." Panelists include NYU professor Jim Anderson; David Chesky of Chesky Records and <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/news/052008hdtracks/index.html">HDTracks.com…;; <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11283/index.html">D&M Holdings</a>' Jeffrey Cowan; and <a href="http://news.cnet.com/audiophiliac/">the Audiophiliac</a>, Steve Guttenberg.

In the Stereophile forum, "ncdrawl" asked: