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Two Lipinskis—Full Surround Music

As they had done at CES, Andrew Lipinski (right) and Lukas Lipinski set up a full surround system using their L-707 two-way monitors that had so impressed Larry Greenhill when he reviewed them for Stereophile last December.

I have long been a fan of Andrew's recordings, and was privileged to be able to hear an extract of the massively scored Penderecki Credo in surround from SACD, which Andrew recorded at the composer's 70th birthday celebratory concert. Kal Rubinson enthuses over both sound and performance of this SACD in his November "Music in the Round" column.

New at…

Subs sub $1000!

REL's new T Line of subwoofers is the first complete line since Sumiko's purchase of REL. The three subs are all dual-cone units with an active downward facing driver and a front-facing passive radiator. Powered, of course, and with the characteristic REL input and filtering arrangements that do not require an electronic crossover or any other insertions in the signal path of the main speakers. The picture shows the biggest of the three, all of which share the same technology, modern design and quality of parts and finish not generally seen at these prices.

Empty glasses!

Late in the day at the Show, most glasses were filled or in the process of being emptied. This stack on the BG stand, however, was empty. It had been erected to show that Radia's new 210i Active Subwoofer is almost totally vibration-free in operation. At the time I took this picture, this sub, with its opposed 10" Kevlar drivers and 500w BASH amp was pumping out gobs of bass, cleanly and tightly. I could detect no vibrations at all with my hand. What's the point? Well, you can put something on top of them (vase, planter, cigar humidor!) without exciting spurious vibrations. Heck, you…

New Omnipolar from Mirage

Here's designer Andrew Welker showing off his new baby floorstander in Mirage's OMD series. The OMD 15 is said to share many of the sonic splendors of the flagship OMD 28 and its general configuration, as well, in a slightly smaller size but at 1/3 the price! At $2500/pair, it offers a 1" titanium-dome HF, a 5.5" titanium-deposit hybrid midrange supplemented by a passive radiator and a 5.5" woofer operating with a down-firing port. In high gloss black, this was simply spiffy.

High-Value Athena Speakers

Athena Technologies has been known for surprisingly high-value speakers tailored for home theater. At CEDIA, they unveiled a new LS Series, with the audiophile's taste in mind. The line features cabinets with curved sides so that the profile tapers at the rear, fiber-glass cones and aluminum-dome tweeters. The top-of-this-line, LS-500B is only $350 each! If the voicing is as stated and the finish quality is as remarkable as the floor samples, this line could have a huge market impact.

Masters on Mastering

Jeff Wong passes along this 2003 article on the fine (and in this age of compression, almost lost) art of disc mastering.

What Are You Looking At, Monkeyboy?

Huckleberry pities us hairless apes, not least for our cluelessness concerning the value of half-eaten "presents."

Yeah!

Bagheera, uncharacteristically agrees with the tabby. "You guys are pathetic."

Panda Has a Baby Roo

Panda Has A Baby Roo. Morgan Jet. 2006
purple highlighter and red pen on paper
8" x 11"

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The office was colorful today. While most everyone else is in Colorado covering CEDIA, we enjoyed a visit from happy Morgan Jet.

In raincoat, galoshes, and pigtails, she comes storming and singing into the office.

"Stephen!"

"Hello, Morgan Jet. Whatcha got?"

"It's a picture."

"Is it for me?"

"Yes!"

"Wow. Oh, it's beautiful."

"Thank you."

"Does it have a name?"

"Yes."

"What's…

High-End Hard Drive?

Sam Feng of Infrant Technologies hefts (barely) the Infrant Repertoire Digital Media Server, a 3TB NAS array designed specifically for high-end music systems. The Infrant contains four Seagate DB35 DynaPlay-enabled hard drives, which means you not only get huge storage capacity, but redundancy as well. Plus, it has a solid aluminum chassis with heat sinks, so no fan noise.