I am looking to purchase my first audiophile grade system. I currently have nothing. I play my music through my computer with "decent" speakers.

I have been doing tons of research and all the literature can't seem to stress the importance of "auditioning" products at a dealer enough. The problem for me is there don't seem to be any dealers near me. I live 45 minutes east of Pittsburgh and the closest dealers with products I'm interested in are outside of Philadelphia, 5 hours away!

The new Bruce album has a song called "Magic," and one of the lines goes...

"Trust none of what you hear

And less of what you see"

It seems very "audio apropos," no?

Any other lyrics you like that describe audiophilia?

Hey, did y'all see that Bel Canto CD-2 that's advertized on the banner here?

It looks like it spins discs out in the open!

I went to their website and tried looking at more images, and I can't tell if the CD transports retracts and plays discs "inside," or spins them "outside."

I would think spinning a disc out in the open would be anathema!

Think of all that stray light!

Any thoughts on this baby?

Folks,

In the November issue of Stereophile John Atkinson's editorial contains a current conversation with Stereophile founder J. Gordon Holt that is, let's say, surprising. I applaud JA for printing Gordon's comments because they defy what I see as a big part of Stereophile's current philosophy to dismiss DBT. I had to read the last section three times to be sure I was really reading what I thought I was reading! Key for me was this quote from Mr. Holt:

I just picked the new Herbie Hancock CD, River: The Joni Letters

and wanted to give everyone a heads up on this really nice recording. It's not at all like Hancock's last release, Possibilities