Stereophile Staff

"Size does matter," John Atkinson discovers, as he fits the Shure E3c in-ear headphones into his ears. Once fitted, JA hooks the mini "cans" up to his iPod and PowerBook to discover how much audiophile sound a little set of ear buds can produce.

Want to know how Michael Fremer is able to tie a story about his baffled plumber into an equipment review? Find out in his report on the Audio Physic Virgo loudspeaker. About the speakers, Mikey writes: "Clearly, the Virgos disappeared, leaving one of the most credible three-dimensional soundstages I've ever experienced in any of my listening rooms over the years."

Last week we posted reviews of the Linn Sondek CD12 CD player and the Linn AV 51 system. This week we add a review of the Linn Linto phono preamplifier, as well as John Atkinson's report on the Revel Ultima Gem loudspeaker & Ultima Sub-15 subwoofer, and Tom Norton's review of the complete Revel Home Theater speaker system.

Kalman Rubinson says he "anticipated the installation of the TacT Audio RCS 2.0 digital equalizer/preamplifier with mixed emotions." Would his hard work at setting up the perfect listening environment be rendered irrelevant in the face of digital signal processing? Or would the future of audio unfold at his feet?