My final audition before attending the warm, "family affair" Classics Records press conference took place in Elliot Midwood's Acoustic Image room, which displayed gear he sells at his store in Studio City, CA. Once I spyed the same ESP Concert Grand SI speakers ($40,000/pair ) that drove <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/406fifth">John Marks into ecstasy in April</A>, I had to listen. Amplification came complements of Wavestream Kinetic V8 monoblocks, which output 250&ndash;300W in triode mode ($35,000). Also on hand were the fabled Messenger preamp and the Lector four-chassis CD Drive and DAC ($9000).

11 AM Thursday, my first room at HE2005: I've just spent way over an hour listening to VTL gear in two completely different configurations. The first, in a hotel suite whose dimensions are similar to rooms in many smaller homes or larger apartments, paired the new VTL MB-450 monoblocks, TP6.5 phono preamp, and just upgraded Reference TL-7.5 linestage preamp with the Jadis JD1 Mk.II transport and JS 1 DAC, VPI Aries 3 turntable with JMW 10.5i tonearm and Benz LP cartridge, Wilson Sophia 2s, and Cardas cabling.

Bagheera asks the question men everywhere dread. Of course I assured her she looked <I>muhvelous</I>.

Well, that's the twiddly bits inside <I>my</I> ears&mdash;a custom mold was taken by an audiologist so that Ultimate Ears could produce a pair of UE-10 Pros for me to review.

Huckleberry, locked in mortal combat with his deadly enemy, the piece of string.

Apple gets more press for products it hasn't even announced yet than most companies get for products they are actually <I>trying</I> to promote. Here's the scoop (maybe) on the gen 6 iPod.

Whether or not Matsumi Suzuki has recreated the voice of the woman who sat for the portrait we call the Mona Lisa, he has already been awarded an Ig-Nobel Prize.

I've never owned a set of headphones. Is that what they're called? Or should it be <i>pair</i> of headphones? Headphones? Earphones? I don't even know. I've stayed away from headphones for a couple of reasons: I don't like having things on my head or in my ears, and I actually do enjoy hearing the sounds around me &mdash; the banjos on the F train, the buses on Madison Avenue, the sirens around the corner, the construction in our hall. Oh, and the birdies chirping, too.

After experiencing Shure's Push-to-Hear control switch, I was in a headphone kind of mood, so I walked on over to HeadRoom's aptly named Headphone Heaven. I imagine that this heavenly set-up will serve as a much-needed respite for many weary showgoers. I found smiling faces, comfy lounge chairs, happy flowers, and lots of sunshine. Everything in the room begged, "Try Me!"

Also in the Belkin room, I had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Bruce Edgar who had furnished the room with his Edgarhorn Titan II loudspeakers ($16,000). Dr. Edgar is an experimental physicist. And also a mind reader. I sat beside him, facing the system with its outrageous array of silvery PureAV interconnects and speaker cables jutting out like all sorts of tentacles and arms and legs, thinking: "Any other cables would make this system look ugly," when Dr. Edgar said to me: "Any other cables would make this system look ugly, don't you think?"