"Them which is of other naturs thinks different," said <I>Martin Chuzzlewit</I>'s Mrs. Gamp. If that is true, then Naim's Julian Vereker must be of a very different nature indeed. Vereker&mdash;and, by extension, Naim&mdash;has never done things the conventional way. Take, for example, power regulation and stiffening power supplies. Long before the rest of the world was taking them seriously, Naim offered upgrades to their components not by changing the audio circuitry, but by adding stiffer and stiffer outboard power regulation.

"Them which is of other naturs thinks different," said <I>Martin Chuzzlewit</I>'s Mrs. Gamp. If that is true, then Naim's Julian Vereker must be of a very different nature indeed. Vereker&mdash;and, by extension, Naim&mdash;has never done things the conventional way. Take, for example, power regulation and stiffening power supplies. Long before the rest of the world was taking them seriously, Naim offered upgrades to their components not by changing the audio circuitry, but by adding stiffer and stiffer outboard power regulation.

"Them which is of other naturs thinks different," said <I>Martin Chuzzlewit</I>'s Mrs. Gamp. If that is true, then Naim's Julian Vereker must be of a very different nature indeed. Vereker&mdash;and, by extension, Naim&mdash;has never done things the conventional way. Take, for example, power regulation and stiffening power supplies. Long before the rest of the world was taking them seriously, Naim offered upgrades to their components not by changing the audio circuitry, but by adding stiffer and stiffer outboard power regulation.

Because I'm suspicious of just twiddling knobs to make the sound "nice," I didn't rely solely on my ears when I used the Z-Systems rdp-1 that I review elsewhere in this issue for speaker and room contouring. Instead, I used the ETF speaker/room-analysis software from <A HREF="http://www.acoustisoft.com">Acoustisoft</A&gt; to help me manipulate the equalizer properly. This program can measure the first-arrival, on-axis speaker response, as well as the room response with its early and late reflections and its resonances.

For the last few months, random postings kept appearing on internet newsgroups and in my e-mail box: "Anybody know what happened to Counterpoint?" At last count there were 10,000 Counterpoint preamps, power amps, and loudspeakers fanned out across the planet, some dating back to 1977, when the company launched its first product: the SA-1 tube preamp, designed by Ed Semanko.

A key benefit of working with <I>Stereophile</I> is enjoying the expertise of fellow audio nerds. After the HI-FI Show just held in Los Angeles, Jonathan Scull and Kathleen Benveniste spent a week riding up the California Coast and paid us each a visit.

The <A HREF="http://www.cemacity.org">Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association</A>'s recently released <A HREF="http://www.cemacity.org/gazette/files/cempub.htm"><I>U.S. Consumer Electronics Industry Today</I></A> indicates a healthy glow on the cheeks of specialty audio. US exports of component audio products amounted to $2.12 billion in 1997, an increase of 12% over the previous year's total of $1.89 billion. 1997's total represents a 25% increase over 1995, when almost $1.7 billion in separate audio products went out of the country. The figures are compiled by CEMA from US Department of Commerce figures.

In a move that acknowledges the increasing convergence of consumer electronics and computer technology, <A HREF="http://www.sony.com"&gt; Sony Electronics</A> has reorganized its US sales and marketing structure, and will emphasize digital performance in its new line of products. Foremost among these developments is Sony's recent announcement that its new line of audio and video products will prominently feature its VAIO personal computers. The notebook computers have editing features for video and motion-picture technology, and are quite popular in Japan, where around 100,000 have been sold.

In a dark, smoky office, a desk lamp beams a cone of light onto papers, books, pipes, and notepads. A theoretical physicist hunches over his desk, half-illuminated, visualizing the world inside his equations.