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Love them though I do, I can't imagine there's very much money to be made in the manufacture of spherical (as opposed to elliptical, hyper-elliptical, or just plain fanciful) phonograph styli; consequently, I can't imagine there are many people left in the world who ply that trade. In fact, until recently, I would have guessed that all contemporary spherical tips come from the same place—like meals at any of the fine Indian restaurants on New York's E. Sixth Street, which are rumored to share a single tandoor.

And…

In "Listening" in the July 2011 issue, Art Dudley wrote about his experiences with three digital music players for Macintosh computers: Amarra, Decibel, and Pure Music, each of which ensures that the bits it presents to the DAC are the same bits as those stored in the file, and at the same sample rate (footnote 1). That column was prepared in early April; when new versions of Decibel and Pure Music became available in June, I thought it useful to write a short Follow-Up.

Decibel, a bare-bones, playlist-oriented…

I came to Jane Siberry's music pretty late in the game. This is her fourth album, and the third released by a major label—No Borders Here and The Speckless Sky were released by Open Sky/Windham Hill a few years ago. Hadn't heard 'em (footnote 1). Didn't need to. On the basis of The Walking alone, it was clear Siberry is one of the most important singer/songwriters we've got.

Had to laugh when I read Reprise's promo…

The Technical Background
Bruce Thigpen was one of the…

When I travel to larger cities, the first thing I do after checking into my room is to consult the Yellow Pages under "Records, Tapes & Compact Discs"—for a certified vinyl junkie, discovering a source of used records in a strange city can be economically disastrous as well as socially alienating. Be upfront with your friends about your addiction, or you may find yourself returning home alone! Not empty-handed, though! If you extend your search to used-bookstores (which usually have a few records stashed away…

Much has been written in these pages on Eminent Technology's parallel-tracking, air-bearing tonearm ($950), so I will only be brief. I must report that I find the Series Two ET to be a most creditable product, overcoming my earlier mixed feelings about it which were based on my auditioning of the original model. It does need a highly stable support and in these series of tests, it worked well in combination with the Roksan Xerxes turntable (footnote 1).

I was never entirely comfortable with the…

"What's in the box, Guy?" asked Nicholas Potter, Santa Fe's sole purveyor of used records and CDs.

"CDs," I replied.

"Always glad to see 'em, especially the classical ones. Cleaning out the closet?" he queried.

"In a sense, yes. They don't sound so good anymore,"

"Why?"

"Because I've made some improvements to my system—tweaked my ET tonearm," I replied.

"That's the one with the air bearing, isn't it? The one you hook up to an aquarium pump?"

"…

Description: Air-bearing straight line tonearm with detachable arm tubes. Wide range of user adjustments.
Price: $850 (1984); $950 (1989–1991); $2900 (ET2.5, 2011). Approximate number of dealers: 80.
Manufacturer: Eminent Technology Inc., 225 E. Palmer Street, Tallahassee, FL 32301. Tel: (904) 575-5655. Web: www.eminent-tech.com/main.html.

In this penthouse suite on the eve of September 13, Polk Audio presented their line of UltraFit active headphones to members of…