It's always good to tear into a good steak with Tor Sivertsen, Conrad-Johnson's main marketing man.

It's always good to tear into a good steak with Tor Sivertsen, Conrad-Johnson's main marketing man.

It's always good to tear into a good steak with Tor Sivertsen, Conrad-Johnson's main marketing man.

The creator of Koetsu phono cartridges passed away on Sunday, January 20, 2002, just a couple of months short of reaching the age of 95. A wake was held in Chiba, Japan on January 22; the funeral took place on the following day.

The past several months haven't been kind to the electronics industry. Most manufacturers are suffering from slow sales and backlogged inventory. But one company is painting a slightly different, if confusing, picture. Unless you've drastically slashed margins while quadrupling sales volume, the phrase "record quarterly sales but decreased profits" appears self-contradictory. Yet <A HREF="http://www.sony.com">Sony Corporation</A> is claiming exactly that for the last quarter of 2001, the company's third fiscal quarter. (Most electronics manufacturers begin new fiscal years April 1.) On Friday, January 25, Sony announced a 14.4% decline in overall profits for the final three months of 2001, due to sagging demand for consumer electronics products. The company reported that sales of electronics decreased 2.8% to &#165;1.55 trillion, with operating income for its electronics unit down a stunning 47% to &#165;71 billion. The same announcement claimed an all-time quarterly sales record for Sony Corporation as a whole.

As Robert J. Reina writes in his review of the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/500/">JMlab Chorus 706 loudspeaker</A>, "The most exciting development in audio today isn't multichannel surround, single-ended triodes, or $10,000 phono cartridges. It's 'trickle down.'" Find out just what has trickled into the Chorus from the company's highly regarded Utopia line.

One of the more compelling live demonstrations at last year's 2001 Consumer Electronics Show was in the room at the Alexis Park hosted by Australia's <A HREF="http://www.clarityeq.com">ClarityEQ</A&gt;. As <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10969/">reported last year</A>, using a $350 pair of NHT Super One speakers driven by mass-market consumer gear, the company's PDC-6.6 DSP correction system noticeably improved the midrange tonality and imaging we were hearing each time it was switched into the circuit. This prompted us to give the company the "proof of concept in a hotel room" award for that year.

Few music lovers who grew up in the 1950s and '60s could have failed to be influenced by torch singer Peggy Lee, who died of heart failure at her Bel Air home on Monday, January 21. Lee was 81 and had been in ill health for several years.

The most exciting development in audio today isn't multichannel surround, single-ended triodes, or $10,000 phono cartridges. It's "trickle down." I get buzzed when an audio designer known for cutting-edge multikilobuck designs claims to have a product that can produce 80% of the sonic realism of his flagship design at 50% of the cost. I get even more excited when he does it again&mdash;that is, produces a product that produces 64% of his flagship's performance at 25% of the cost. Designers who have successfully trickled-down their flagship technologies abound in all quarters of audiophilia, from electronics (<I>eg</I>, Audio Research, Conrad-Johnson) to speakers (Al&#243;n, ProAc) to cables (MIT).