Stephen Mejias

The August 2010 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands. The cover, with its mellow tones, is one of my favorites. To a greater degree than any other cover we’ve released, this one got a buzz going around the office. People would walk by and say nice things. I hope the cover works the same magic for people browsing the newsstands.

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Yesterday morning, John Atkinson and I drove out to Mikey Fremer’s place to perform a set of test measurements on the Magico">http://www.magico.net/magicoq/index.php">Magico Q5 (review scheduled for our November issue). While JA set up his gear for the in-room measurements, I got to listen to music. Mikey was my personal DJ. He played some sultry Julie London, some angry Gil Scott-Heron, and some soothing Nat “King” Cole. All three, thanks to the outstanding recordings and thanks to the outstanding system, sounded very much alive.

Speaking of upgrades, this just arrived in the mail. Rega’s drive belt upgrade ($59) is supposed to do something good for my P3. It has something to do with tolerances and stuff.

Rega’s outstanding">http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/708rega/">outstanding P3-24 turntable is available in lots of fun colors, and even though I do love my white P3, I still suffer from color envy. I want a green one, a blue one, an orange one, a">http://blog.stereophile.com/ssi2010/regas_p3-24_is_pretty_in_pink/">a pink one. I would like a different P3 for every day of the week, a P3 for my every mood. I wonder if the different colors have different sonic properties. For instance, does my white P3 sound purer than a black P3? Are certain colors better suited to certain types of music? Blue for the blues?

This is the Ion TW1S tweeter module found in the Acapella High Violoncello II loudspeaker ($80,000/pair). As you can see from this picture, taken in JA’s listening room, the tweeter module rests beneath the Acapella’s midrange enclosure. (That big, purple bell&#151the color is actually Porsche Amethyst&#151has a diameter of 18.5”.) Housed in a perforated metal box and powered with its own AC cord, the tweeter module is a completely self-contained unit; it accepts a line-level input from an RCA jack and amplifies the signal with a class-A amplifier.

Good thing I bought all those records.