We received the following email this afternoon. Sad, sad news. I shall remember the Richard Beers of unlimited energy and enthusiasm, pictured above at the 2013 T.H.E. Show in Newport Beach, CA. Richard made audio shows fun for all—exhibitors, press, and most all audiophiles of every persuasion. We’ll miss you, Richard.—John Atkinson

---

Dear Industry Friends,

My name is Maurice Jung and I am the interim President for T.H.E. Show Newport. It is with heartfelt sorrow that I must inform you of the passing of Mr. Richard Beers. . .

AudioVision SF (1628 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94109) are having a free event Thursday March 17, 7:30–9:30pm, to preview Technics' new Audiophile 1200GAE 50th Anniversary Limited-Edition turntable and tonearm. This is not the Technics 1200 your local DJ played but a fully redesigned table with just about everything taken upstream except for the basic look!

Dr. Feickert Analogue's top-of-the line turntable, the Firebird ($12,500), is a generously sized record player designed to easily accommodate two 12" tonearms. Its three brushless, three-phase DC motors, arranged around the platter in an equilateral triangle, are connected to a proprietary controller in a phase-locked loop (PLL); according to the Firebird's designer, Dr. Christian Feickert, a reference signal from just one of the motors drives all three—thus one motor is the master while the other two are slaves. (Man, today that is politically incorrect, however descriptively accurate.) Feickert says that the key to this drive system is the motor design, which was done in close consultation with its manufacturer, Pabst. The result is a feedback-based system in which the controller produces the very low jitter levels claimed by Feickert.

The April Issue features an extensively revised "Recommended Components" feature—often copied, never equaled—while April Music's stylin' Aura Note V2 CD receiver gets the full review treatment from Art Dudley. In addition, we have:
• Great analog playback gear from Abis, Jasmine, Mørch, Reed, SME, and TechDAS
• A US-premier review of the AR-M2 hi-rez portable player from one of the great names in hi-fi, Acoustic Research, now under new ownership
• A high-end server from Aurender is put through its paces
• An interview with that most blues-ish singer/guitarist, Bonnie Raitt
• And kicking off this bumper 188-page issue, a report that "The Kids Are Alright!"