What fascinates me about the High End are the electric personalities behind it. Manufacturers typically invest so <I>much</I> of themselves in the products they make. It's a divine madness&mdash;they do it because they have to. They're <I>driven</I> to it with a real sense of mission and excellence. But God forbid you <I>criticize</I> any of their offspring...<I>ooo-la-la!</I>

I literally dropped everything when Rega's new Planar 25 turntable arrived a few weeks ago. I'd heard the 'table compared with the Planar 3 at designer Roy Gandy's house when I visited Rega last fall—see "Analog Corner" in the January '99 Stereophile—and was anxious to audition it in my own system and tell you what I heard.

I literally dropped everything when Rega's new Planar 25 turntable arrived a few weeks ago. I'd heard the 'table compared with the Planar 3 at designer Roy Gandy's house when I visited Rega last fall&mdash;see "Analog Corner" in the January '99 <I>Stereophile</I>&mdash;and was anxious to audition it in my own system and tell you what I heard.

I literally dropped everything when Rega's new Planar 25 turntable arrived a few weeks ago. I'd heard the 'table compared with the Planar 3 at designer Roy Gandy's house when I visited Rega last fall&mdash;see "Analog Corner" in the January '99 <I>Stereophile</I>&mdash;and was anxious to audition it in my own system and tell you what I heard.

I literally dropped everything when Rega's new Planar 25 turntable arrived a few weeks ago. I'd heard the 'table compared with the Planar 3 at designer Roy Gandy's house when I visited Rega last fall&mdash;see "Analog Corner" in the January '99 <I>Stereophile</I>&mdash;and was anxious to audition it in my own system and tell you what I heard.

I literally dropped everything when Rega's new Planar 25 turntable arrived a few weeks ago. I'd heard the 'table compared with the Planar 3 at designer Roy Gandy's house when I visited Rega last fall&mdash;see "Analog Corner" in the January '99 <I>Stereophile</I>&mdash;and was anxious to audition it in my own system and tell you what I heard.

On a very special Saturday night in early September&mdash;late winter in Australia&mdash;I was deeply moved by hearing Brahms' Symphony 1 in the concert hall of the Sydney Opera House complex. Perhaps it was Marek Janowski's fiery, inspired conducting, but I keep recalling the hall itself. Earlier that day, I had photographed&mdash;first from my hotel room, later from a ferry&mdash;the huge, nesting sail-like roofs, covered with a million white ceramic tiles, that enclose an opera theater, concert hall, and restaurant. Twenty-five years in construction and costing over $107 million, the Sydney Opera House is described in my <I>Fodor's '98 Australia</I> guide as "the most widely recognized landmark of urban Australia." Attending the concert that night&mdash;all 2679 seats were occupied&mdash;I found the acoustics lovely, dark, and rich.

On a very special Saturday night in early September&mdash;late winter in Australia&mdash;I was deeply moved by hearing Brahms' Symphony 1 in the concert hall of the Sydney Opera House complex. Perhaps it was Marek Janowski's fiery, inspired conducting, but I keep recalling the hall itself. Earlier that day, I had photographed&mdash;first from my hotel room, later from a ferry&mdash;the huge, nesting sail-like roofs, covered with a million white ceramic tiles, that enclose an opera theater, concert hall, and restaurant. Twenty-five years in construction and costing over $107 million, the Sydney Opera House is described in my <I>Fodor's '98 Australia</I> guide as "the most widely recognized landmark of urban Australia." Attending the concert that night&mdash;all 2679 seats were occupied&mdash;I found the acoustics lovely, dark, and rich.

On a very special Saturday night in early September&mdash;late winter in Australia&mdash;I was deeply moved by hearing Brahms' Symphony 1 in the concert hall of the Sydney Opera House complex. Perhaps it was Marek Janowski's fiery, inspired conducting, but I keep recalling the hall itself. Earlier that day, I had photographed&mdash;first from my hotel room, later from a ferry&mdash;the huge, nesting sail-like roofs, covered with a million white ceramic tiles, that enclose an opera theater, concert hall, and restaurant. Twenty-five years in construction and costing over $107 million, the Sydney Opera House is described in my <I>Fodor's '98 Australia</I> guide as "the most widely recognized landmark of urban Australia." Attending the concert that night&mdash;all 2679 seats were occupied&mdash;I found the acoustics lovely, dark, and rich.

On a very special Saturday night in early September&mdash;late winter in Australia&mdash;I was deeply moved by hearing Brahms' Symphony 1 in the concert hall of the Sydney Opera House complex. Perhaps it was Marek Janowski's fiery, inspired conducting, but I keep recalling the hall itself. Earlier that day, I had photographed&mdash;first from my hotel room, later from a ferry&mdash;the huge, nesting sail-like roofs, covered with a million white ceramic tiles, that enclose an opera theater, concert hall, and restaurant. Twenty-five years in construction and costing over $107 million, the Sydney Opera House is described in my <I>Fodor's '98 Australia</I> guide as "the most widely recognized landmark of urban Australia." Attending the concert that night&mdash;all 2679 seats were occupied&mdash;I found the acoustics lovely, dark, and rich.