JBL speakers remind me of college.

JBL speakers remind me of college.

JBL speakers remind me of college.

Paul Kelly (pkell4@earthlink.net) recently sent me a most interesting e-mail titled "Cones, Stones, & Groans." I'll share it with you now, as I gave "Sean" (bigfoot1@corecomm.net) a chance to expound on cones and how they work under equipment in the February "Fine Tunes." After reading through all the "Fine Tunes" archived on the Stereophile website (I thank him for his positive remarks), Paul wrote:

Here's an audio riddle for you. Question: What's erasable but not recordable? Answer: Downloadable music from <A HREF="http://www.fullaudio.com">FullAudio Corporation</A>.

First, the sobering reality: Among the world's billions of music lovers, probably a million or fewer are true audiophiles, for whom sound quality is a primary concern. The uncritical majority will embrace any audio technology that offers economy and convenience. Case in point: the popularity of the MP3 digital format, widely derided by audiophiles for its compressed dynamics and lack of detail, but adopted readily by the general public because of its ease of use.

Maybe it's only fair: Consumer electronics giants like Sony have been selling personal computers lately, so computer manufacturer <A HREF="http://www.compaq.com/ipaqaudio">Compaq</A&gt; announced last week that it will begin selling audio products. Joining Intel in making the transition from the computer industry to consumer electronics, Compaq has now redefined itself as "a global enterprise technology and solutions company."

More good news for budget-conscious audiophiles who are waiting for that all-in-one universal high-resolution audio player: Yet another chip manufacturer is announcing a decoder IC that will allow new DVD machines to untangle just about any audio file format. Last week, LuxSonor Semiconductors joined the growing list (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11059/">previous</A&gt;) of chip manufacturers that are including both DVD-Audio and SACD in one package.

They've been around for years, under a variety of guises and from an evolving list of manufacturers and distributors. But the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/361/">BBC LS3/5a loudspeakers</A> still cling to their legendary status. We provide not only J. Gordon Holt's original 1977 review for <I>Stereophile</I>, but also follow-ups from 1984, 1989, and 1993. Read about the little speaker that could.