Pollock, Rothko, Amperex, and Sylvania? Last spring I went to a contemporary art show out on Chicago's Navy Pier. I wanted to get away from things with wires and knobs—you know, rub elbows with Chicago's better-dressed, sip some wine, maybe practice talking about artistic creations that I usually don't understand ("It's so brutally honest...yet, somehow, still deceptive"). But there's no rest for the weary, confused audiophile. Along with artists, paintings, and sculptures from all over the world, thousands of vacuum tubes had descended on the Pier.

"Heard anything great?"

"Heard anything great?"

"Heard anything great?"

"Heard anything great?"

"Heard anything great?"

"Heard anything great?"

"Heard anything great?"

<B>EMMYLOU HARRIS: <I>Portraits</I></B><BR> Reprise Archives 45308-2 (3 CDs only). Gregg Geller, prod.; Keith Blake, eng.; Jo Motta, project coordinator. 1996. TT: 3:42:11

An equipment reviewer for one of the consumer hi-fi magazines once confided to a manufacturer that he found it hard to like electrostatics because of the kind of people who usually like electrostatics. His implication&mdash;that certain kinds of people gravitate towards certain kinds of sound&mdash;is an interesting thought, and one that might bear some further investigation. But there is no questioning the fact that electrostatic speakers in general <I>do</I> have a particular kind of sound, that might be characterized as "polite."