'Cause it's hard to say what's real / When you know the way you feel—Flaming Lips, "One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21," from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

In a recent Zoom meeting, some friends got into a dust-up about how "real"-sounding high-performance audio systems can be. The consensus was that there was no chance at all of real, live sound. A label owner waved it off as impossible: "Fuhgeddaboudit," he said. He's from New York, like me.

Register to win a Pro-Ject The Beatles SGT. Pepper Essential III, Special Edition Turntable (value $500.00) we are giving away.

According to the company:

"Pro-Ject is celebrating the 54th anniversary of a Beatles' landmark with our "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"-inspired Essential III turntable. This high-performance table is based on one of our most popular models and features variable 33/45 RPM speeds. It's also one of the most striking pieces in our entire collection. We're excited to be collaborating with our friends at Stereophile and Analog Planet to offer readers a chance to own this historic piece."

[This Sweepstakes is now closed.]

Almost exactly a year ago to the day that I'm writing this—March 11, 2020—the WHO officially declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic. If you weren't paying attention, maybe you didn't see it coming (incredibly, some still deny the pandemic's existence), but I had already canceled a March 14, 2020, flight to Atlanta to speak to the local audiophile society. I'd made the plans for that visit at the Florida Audio Expo a few weeks earlier. Remember hi-fi shows?

The June 2021 issue of Stereophile included followup reviews of two recommended components, both which deserved further investigation of what they had to offer: the dCS Bartók D/A processor and the Schiit Audio Sol turntable.