Nick Cave's vocals &#151; searching, pleading, urgent and, normally, red-hot &#151; sounded just <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/041607listening/">a bit soft and cool</a> through the PSB Alpha B1s. Ward wondered:

A ticket to Home Entertainment 2007&mdash;The High Performance Sound & Imaging Show,, to be held May 11-13, 2007 at the Grand Hyatt New York Hotel in New York City, offers attendees a chance to hear live musical performances from some of the great artists of classical music and jazz.

Hugh Barker and Yuval Taylor have written <I>Faking It: the quest for authenticity in popular music</I>, a book that tackles the "pop paradox": the harder popular musicians try to "keep it real," the faker their music becomes.

<I>Variety</I> headline: "Digital proves problematic." Oh who would have ever thunk it? Oh wait&mdash;maybe it was us audiophiles.

Over the years, I have used and enjoyed in my audio system large, single-purpose components. Each of these chassis has had but one role: preamplifier, amplifier, digital-to-audio converter (DAC), etc. I guess I've been just a little suspicious of products with multiple functions crammed into a single small chassis; I've figured that the designer may have cut a corner that could affect the sound.

Over the years, I have used and enjoyed in my audio system large, single-purpose components. Each of these chassis has had but one role: preamplifier, amplifier, digital-to-audio converter (DAC), etc. I guess I've been just a little suspicious of products with multiple functions crammed into a single small chassis; I've figured that the designer may have cut a corner that could affect the sound.