As I write these words, it's the height of the fall catalog season in the Atkinson household. Whole old-growth forests must have died to ensure the everyday stuffed state of our mailbox, which adds to the sense of guilt I feel as I pitch the offenders into the trash without even giving their insides a passing glance. But there are three catalogs I <I>do</I> look forward to receiving, that I read from cover to cover, that I deface with multicolored Post-It notes. The <A HREF="http://www.audioadvisor.com">Audio Advisor</A> catalog is, of course, a no-brainer for an audiophile. But the <A HREF="http://www.griotsgarage.com">Griot's Garage</A> and <A HREF="http://www.levenger.com">Levenger</A&gt; catalogs get equal billing from me. For both offer tools (used in the widest sense of the word) that appear to have been designed by people who actually use tools, who appear to care about quality, and who appear to feel that a product that breaks while it is being used for its intended task is an offense against God (footnote 1).

As I write these words, it's the height of the fall catalog season in the Atkinson household. Whole old-growth forests must have died to ensure the everyday stuffed state of our mailbox, which adds to the sense of guilt I feel as I pitch the offenders into the trash without even giving their insides a passing glance. But there are three catalogs I <I>do</I> look forward to receiving, that I read from cover to cover, that I deface with multicolored Post-It notes. The <A HREF="http://www.audioadvisor.com">Audio Advisor</A> catalog is, of course, a no-brainer for an audiophile. But the <A HREF="http://www.griotsgarage.com">Griot's Garage</A> and <A HREF="http://www.levenger.com">Levenger</A&gt; catalogs get equal billing from me. For both offer tools (used in the widest sense of the word) that appear to have been designed by people who actually use tools, who appear to care about quality, and who appear to feel that a product that breaks while it is being used for its intended task is an offense against God (footnote 1).

As I write these words, it's the height of the fall catalog season in the Atkinson household. Whole old-growth forests must have died to ensure the everyday stuffed state of our mailbox, which adds to the sense of guilt I feel as I pitch the offenders into the trash without even giving their insides a passing glance. But there are three catalogs I <I>do</I> look forward to receiving, that I read from cover to cover, that I deface with multicolored Post-It notes. The <A HREF="http://www.audioadvisor.com">Audio Advisor</A> catalog is, of course, a no-brainer for an audiophile. But the <A HREF="http://www.griotsgarage.com">Griot's Garage</A> and <A HREF="http://www.levenger.com">Levenger</A&gt; catalogs get equal billing from me. For both offer tools (used in the widest sense of the word) that appear to have been designed by people who actually use tools, who appear to care about quality, and who appear to feel that a product that breaks while it is being used for its intended task is an offense against God (footnote 1).

As I write these words, it's the height of the fall catalog season in the Atkinson household. Whole old-growth forests must have died to ensure the everyday stuffed state of our mailbox, which adds to the sense of guilt I feel as I pitch the offenders into the trash without even giving their insides a passing glance. But there are three catalogs I <I>do</I> look forward to receiving, that I read from cover to cover, that I deface with multicolored Post-It notes. The <A HREF="http://www.audioadvisor.com">Audio Advisor</A> catalog is, of course, a no-brainer for an audiophile. But the <A HREF="http://www.griotsgarage.com">Griot's Garage</A> and <A HREF="http://www.levenger.com">Levenger</A&gt; catalogs get equal billing from me. For both offer tools (used in the widest sense of the word) that appear to have been designed by people who actually use tools, who appear to care about quality, and who appear to feel that a product that breaks while it is being used for its intended task is an offense against God (footnote 1).

As I write these words, it's the height of the fall catalog season in the Atkinson household. Whole old-growth forests must have died to ensure the everyday stuffed state of our mailbox, which adds to the sense of guilt I feel as I pitch the offenders into the trash without even giving their insides a passing glance. But there are three catalogs I <I>do</I> look forward to receiving, that I read from cover to cover, that I deface with multicolored Post-It notes. The <A HREF="http://www.audioadvisor.com">Audio Advisor</A> catalog is, of course, a no-brainer for an audiophile. But the <A HREF="http://www.griotsgarage.com">Griot's Garage</A> and <A HREF="http://www.levenger.com">Levenger</A&gt; catalogs get equal billing from me. For both offer tools (used in the widest sense of the word) that appear to have been designed by people who actually use tools, who appear to care about quality, and who appear to feel that a product that breaks while it is being used for its intended task is an offense against God (footnote 1).

The High End is a tidily ordered world. There are CD players, transports, and processors used to play stereo recordings and drive stereo preamplifiers. There are stereo or mono amplifiers used to drive a pair of speakers. And then there is the British high-end company Meridian, run by one J. Robert Stuart, one of audio's deeper thinkers and a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society. Meridian does it their way. They put their amplifiers <I>inside</I> their speakers. Heck, Meridian even puts their D/A processors inside their speakers when they can. And two speakers to play back stereo recordings? Meridian believes in re-creating the original soundfield no matter how many speakers and channels it takes to do it right. And they do it sufficiently successfully that their Digital Theatre system, which does all of the above, was one of <I>Stereophile</I>'s joint Home Theater products of 1995. [<I>See also the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/201/">2000 review</A> of their Series 800 Digital Theatre.&mdash;Ed.</I>]

The High End is a tidily ordered world. There are CD players, transports, and processors used to play stereo recordings and drive stereo preamplifiers. There are stereo or mono amplifiers used to drive a pair of speakers. And then there is the British high-end company Meridian, run by one J. Robert Stuart, one of audio's deeper thinkers and a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society. Meridian does it their way. They put their amplifiers <I>inside</I> their speakers. Heck, Meridian even puts their D/A processors inside their speakers when they can. And two speakers to play back stereo recordings? Meridian believes in re-creating the original soundfield no matter how many speakers and channels it takes to do it right. And they do it sufficiently successfully that their Digital Theatre system, which does all of the above, was one of <I>Stereophile</I>'s joint Home Theater products of 1995. [<I>See also the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/201/">2000 review</A> of their Series 800 Digital Theatre.&mdash;Ed.</I>]

The High End is a tidily ordered world. There are CD players, transports, and processors used to play stereo recordings and drive stereo preamplifiers. There are stereo or mono amplifiers used to drive a pair of speakers. And then there is the British high-end company Meridian, run by one J. Robert Stuart, one of audio's deeper thinkers and a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society. Meridian does it their way. They put their amplifiers <I>inside</I> their speakers. Heck, Meridian even puts their D/A processors inside their speakers when they can. And two speakers to play back stereo recordings? Meridian believes in re-creating the original soundfield no matter how many speakers and channels it takes to do it right. And they do it sufficiently successfully that their Digital Theatre system, which does all of the above, was one of <I>Stereophile</I>'s joint Home Theater products of 1995. [<I>See also the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/201/">2000 review</A> of their Series 800 Digital Theatre.&mdash;Ed.</I>]

The High End is a tidily ordered world. There are CD players, transports, and processors used to play stereo recordings and drive stereo preamplifiers. There are stereo or mono amplifiers used to drive a pair of speakers. And then there is the British high-end company Meridian, run by one J. Robert Stuart, one of audio's deeper thinkers and a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society. Meridian does it their way. They put their amplifiers <I>inside</I> their speakers. Heck, Meridian even puts their D/A processors inside their speakers when they can. And two speakers to play back stereo recordings? Meridian believes in re-creating the original soundfield no matter how many speakers and channels it takes to do it right. And they do it sufficiently successfully that their Digital Theatre system, which does all of the above, was one of <I>Stereophile</I>'s joint Home Theater products of 1995. [<I>See also the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/201/">2000 review</A> of their Series 800 Digital Theatre.&mdash;Ed.</I>]

The High End is a tidily ordered world. There are CD players, transports, and processors used to play stereo recordings and drive stereo preamplifiers. There are stereo or mono amplifiers used to drive a pair of speakers. And then there is the British high-end company Meridian, run by one J. Robert Stuart, one of audio's deeper thinkers and a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society. Meridian does it their way. They put their amplifiers <I>inside</I> their speakers. Heck, Meridian even puts their D/A processors inside their speakers when they can. And two speakers to play back stereo recordings? Meridian believes in re-creating the original soundfield no matter how many speakers and channels it takes to do it right. And they do it sufficiently successfully that their Digital Theatre system, which does all of the above, was one of <I>Stereophile</I>'s joint Home Theater products of 1995. [<I>See also the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/201/">2000 review</A> of their Series 800 Digital Theatre.&mdash;Ed.</I>]