T+A's Siegfried Amft thinks different. That's obvious from his beautifully designed tube and solid-state products, an observation that cruelly ignores how good they sound. I was happy to see that Amft made it to the show, because I reckoned that meant he had something new and startling to demonstrate. He did: Criterion TCI 2 Active loudspeakers ($25,500/pair), sarcophagi incorporating twin carbon fiber 10" woofers in a selaed enclosure, a 7" specially tuned midrange cone, and a curved electrostatic panel that Amft claims can produce SPLs above 120dB "while maintaining superb membrane travel and distortion characteristics."

<i>Written in blue ink on the white space of pages of <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/homepage/index.html">Fast Company magazine</a>, while waiting for the plane, yesterday morning, at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas.</i>

Real men spin!

NASA announced Monday that Hubble reveals Polaris to be a triple star system.

Counterfeit products proliferate. Know your source, as we used to say in the '60s.

Our galaxy, that is. Wanna know why?

Andrew and Lukas Lipinski, manufacturers of the L-707 monitor I <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/1205lipinski/">reviewed in December</A>, were fed up with poor room acoustics and slow foot traffic at trade shows. So they eliminated the room! Ray Kimber urged them to take the empty spot in the Alexis Park lunchroom for their demo setup. Andrew set up one of the few multi-channel demo systems at the Show using six L-707s, including the one for rear height information seen in the photo. Despite the din of the lunch crowd, all I had to do was sit in the nearfield, and I was bathed in sound from Andrew's multi-channel recordings, such as his new <I>Republique</I> SACD. For the photo, however, they kicked back with Telarc's recording of Ladysmith Black Mambazo singing "Diamonds in the Soles of Her Shoes." It definitely rocked the lunchroom!