Stephen Mejias

And then I just sort of couldn't help myself. I mean, maybe you've been in a situation like this, too. I don't know. It was kind of just hanging there, waiting to happen. I know we had only just met&#151I hope you don't think less of me because of this&#151but I really think the time was right.

It’s alive! Nirvana brings nirvana to SM’s listening room.

There are Vista Points all along phenomenal Highway 1. We made plenty of stops.

Marantz America will sponsor German classical and rock violinist David Garrett through his 21-city tour of the United States. The tour unofficially opened with a “flash mob” performance at New York City’s Eataly restaurant.

I love the styling of the latest Marantz gear&#151strong and masculine without being overblown or audacious. Though the late '80s through early '90s saw Marantz move away from their high end roots, the last decade has been a return to form. Under the ownership of D&M Holdings, the respected audio company seems to be embracing their cherished past. In May 2008, Michael Fremer was extremely impressed by their SM-11S1">http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/508mar11s1/index.html">SM-11S1 Reference power amplifier. He wrote:

In our December issue, I review Emotiva’s ERC-2 CD player and use Mark Hollis’s eponymous solo album as a reference. It’s a gorgeous disc, both sonically and musically&#151full of emotion, power, urgency, and lifelike detail. It was only earlier this year that I discovered Mark Hollis and his band, Talk Talk, through the kindness of Steve Cohen, salesman at In Living Stereo and friend of Other Music.

I had just met Steve.

Electronic composer Markus Popp (Oval) may be best known for his terse, angular, and rhythmically complex micro-compositions, but he seems increasingly interested in making full-fledged songs.

With Calidostópia!, recently released as a download, he’s combined the glitchy pointillism of previous releases, such as 2010’s fascinating O (which I used as a test disc in my “Follow-Up” review of Simaudio’s versatile i3.3 integrated amplifier), with the voices of seven South American singers: Agustín Albrieu of Argentina; Andrés Gualdrón of Columbia; Maité Gadea of Uruguay; Hana Kobayashi of Venezuela; and Dandara Modesto, Aiace Felix, and Emilia Suto of Brazil.