Stephen Mejias

Mikey fremers with some connections while the imposing Wilson MAXX 3 loudspeaker looks on, darth-vaderishly. Better not screw up, Mikey.

Last Friday was an interesting day in the office. No one was here, but Ariel. Robert Baird was whooping it up at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, and John Atkinson and I would soon be on the road. It was the first day of spring, and snow was falling like mad.

The April 2009 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands. The April issue is always a bear, but this one was a hungry, 15 foot tall, 2 ton Kodiak. It's kind of a miracle that it even exists.

It's really serious. I mean, in the beginning, you might give yourself a $25 spending limit, knowing very well that you'll find a little spot on the floor, alongside several others who'll be furiously rifling through the dollar bins. You'll almost certainly come away with a nice little stack of a dozen or so beautiful vinyl LPs. And that's all you'll need, really. That's all you'll need.

The Phiaton PS 200 sound-isolating earphones cost $249 and are designed to resemble jet engines! John Atkinson is working on a review.

Clad in red leather and light as a feather, the frigging luscious Phiaton">http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/phiaton_moderna_ms_400_headphones… Moderna MS 400 headphones have a way of caressing your silly skull.

I'd been curious about Phiaton's headphones ever since Wes Phillips's positive review of the radical-looking, leather-clad Moderna">http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/phiaton_moderna_ms_400_headphones… MS 400 appeared in our pages earlier this year, so when I learned that a couple of Phiaton's executives would be in New York City to introduce their new noise-cancelling 'phones, I was eager to check them out.