Stephen Mejias

Web Monkey, Jon Iverson, has informed me that today is the 40th birthday of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, held at Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York. I really don't know much at all about Woodstock. I haven't read any of the books or watched any of the movies. I know that Richie Havens opened (and played and played until he couldn't play anymore), but I've only just recently acquired that bit of knowledge. I know that Jimi Hendrix tore through an angry version of the "Star-Spangled Banner." I know that Janis Joplin was there. I've seen that funny video of Joe Cocker singing "With A Little Help from My Friends." And I've heard that many of the performances absolutely sucked.

The Wilson Audio Specialties' warehouse, tucked into the Utah mountains.

The Wilson MAXX 3, showered under the red light for the feature shot on page 67 of our September 2009 issue.

She didn't ask. She demanded.

We flew cover photographer Eric Swanson to Salt Lake City to shoot the impressive Wilson MAXX 3 loudspeaker. His flight was delayed, of course.

The September 2009 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands. What do you think of the cover? Is it exciting enough for you? Does it make you want to rescue our darling magazine from the clutches of the ungodly newsstand and kiss it? Did we obscure too much of our logo with the big Wilson MAXX 3? Did you think that our magazine was called Stereop?

Marantz America is supporting the launch of their attractive KI">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/marantz_ki_pearls/">KI Pearl components with a decidedly august hardcover book and matching dual-layer SACD. Like the KI Pearls themselves, both the book and SACD celebrate audio designer Ken Ishiwata's 30-year relationship with Marantz and offer insights into his life and work.