Such is the pace of development in digital technology these days that it is hard not to become convinced that digital playback is a solved problem. The measured performance aberrations are so low in absolute level—and, more important, so low compared with the typical threshold of human hearing—that it is difficult to see why digital components should sound different from one another.

<I>Theta makes a power amp?</I>

<I>Theta makes a power amp?</I>

<I>Theta makes a power amp?</I>

<I>Theta makes a power amp?</I>

<I>Theta makes a power amp?</I>

<I>Theta makes a power amp?</I>

<I>Theta makes a power amp?</I>

I never "got" the spurs with which Jimmie Lee Robinson provided a percussive accompaniment to his singing and guitar playing, but I became a fan of Jimmie Lee's when I saw him perform on two successive nights at <A HREF="http://www.acousticsounds.com">Acoustic Sounds</A>' first blues festival in Salina, Kansas in September 1998. His subsequent live appearances at Consumer Electronics Shows and at HI-FI '99, Home Entertainment 2001, and HE2002 on behalf of Acoustic Sounds' associated <A HREF="http://www.analogueproductions.com">APO label</A>, were highlights of those events. (I took the accompanying photo at Jimmie Lee's May 31 <A HREF="http://www.homeentertainment-expo.com">HE2002</A&gt; gig in New York with harmonica player Wild Child Butler.)