Stephen Mejias

This morning, I walked right by electrician and idiosyncratic amplifier designer, Nori Komuro, and I didn’t say a word. Not even hello. Why didn’t I say anything? I don’t know. I had just emerged from the subway, and was walking up 32nd Street, toward Herald Square, and I wasn’t expecting to see an idiosyncratic amplifier designer. I was looking, instead and as usual, at the ground, at the sky, at high-heels and at skirts. I saw plenty of those. I was pulling a small handcart carrying a box of loudspeakers. Nori Komuro and I would have had something to talk about.

“Oh, loudspeakers,” Nori Komuro might have said.

Alright, dammit, I give in: The new Sonic Youth album is pure beauty.

Audiophiles and music lovers may be interested in Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music, the new book from music critic and Sound">http://soundopinions.org/">Sound Opinions cohost Greg Kot. The book is being billed as "the first definitive account of the digital music revolution," and takes an appreciative look at a world in which peer-to-peer file sharing and CD burning are commonplace tools. It can be argued that such technologies are not only blessings for independent musicians looking to gain wider audiences, but also gifts to the music lover who cannot get enough.

I've learned, unfortunately—even painfully—that not all vinyl sounds good. Crazy, I know. I would like to think that great performances make great recordings, and that's all there is to it. But it's not that simple. Even the greatest musical performance can be slashed to death by a bad recording, or by the foolish acts of the music industry. I learned the hard way. Is there any other way to learn?

A happy family. The all-new PSB Image Series (from left to right): The B4, B5, and B6 monitors; the T6 and T5 towers; the C4 (top) and C5 center channels; the S5 surround.

"Don't stay too late," JA says, on his way out of the office.