Among the electrically connected, the phrase short circuit induces panic and horrific images of tripped breakers, blown fuses, acrid blue smoke, and melted circuit boards. Nonetheless, near short circuits are becoming popular among the analog set. Moving-coil cartridges of an inductance and impedance so low they're nearly short circuits are now more common, thanks to powerful neodymium magnets that help produce more and more electrical output from fewer and fewer turns of coil wire. Perhaps the most extreme example of this is the Haniwa HCTR01 Mk.II cartridge, which has an internal impedance of 0.4 ohm and an inductance of 0.3µH.

Trio Mediæval: Solacium, Victoria: Officium hebdomadae sanctae, Ieva Jokubaviciute: Northscapes and Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Enigma.

Nina Simone: The Montreux Years, Dmitry Baevsky: Soundtrack, David Helbock: The New Cool and Roy Hargrove/Mulgrew Miller: In Harmony.

Grateful Dead: Grateful Dead, Scritti Politti: Cupid & Psyche 85 and Stone Temple Pilots: Tiny Music...Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop.

As the title of a fan blog puts it, indie is not a genre. It is potentially every genre. It's an attitude, an approach, a commitment to self-expression without regard to, or in spite of, mainstream demands. It's the blend that nobody can label, the outré, the ahead-of-its-time, the defiantly retro.

Today is Monday. Since Saturday, I have changed the amplifier driving my Falcon Gold Badge LS3/5a speakers three times—from the Parasound Halo A21+ (250Wpc into 8 ohms) to the Pass Labs XA25 (>25Wpc into 8 ohms) to the Elekit TU-8600S (9Wpc into 8 ohms). Now I am listening to the Falcons via the just-arrived RAAL-requisite HSA-1b headphone and speaker amplifier. This unusual, made-in-Serbia amp is priced at $4500. It's specified to produce 10Wpc into 8 ohms, 20Wpc into 4 ohms, 40Wpc into 2 ohms, and 55Wpc into 1 ohm, these values from the loudspeaker output

New York City is a dream you can't have—glitz, glamor, grime, too much to take in from within, too much to understand from afar. It's a metropolitan manifestation of the Heisenberg principle, its nature changing with how you look at it. No matter how you try, you can't see the forest for the skyscrapers.

Register to win one of two Rhino Déjà vu 50th Anniversary Deluxe D2C Vinyl Editions (value $250.00 each), or a limited edition 16"x20" Henry Diltz photo signed by all four members of CSNY (value: $1,500/priceless) we are giving away.

According to Rhino:

"Presented as a 5 LP set in a beautiful box with a 12 x 12 softcover book, the collection comes illustrated with rarely seen photos from the era and annotated by writer/filmmaker Cameron Crowe, whose revealing liner notes recount the making of the album through stories told by the people who were there, including David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young."

[This Sweepstakes is now Closed.]