Stereophile Staff

Sad news: Wes Phillips, who was Stereophile's deputy editor 1995–1999 and a valued contributor 2000 to 2011, passed away yesterday morning after several years of chronic ill health. Wes (right) is shown here at his leaving lunch, 1/1/99 with (L–R) music editor Robert Baird, then-publisher Larry Archibald, and editor John Atkinson. Wes is survived by his wife Joan. We will post more information as it becomes available.

Sunday, July 24, from 2-5pm, The Source A/V Design Group (3035 Kashiwa Street, Torrance CA 90505) will host an open house with the LA&OC Audio Society, MBL North America, and Kimber Kable. Ray Kimber, President of Kimber Kable, will talk about his new Axios headphone cables plus the properties and advantages in braided-wire technology while Jeremy Bryant, CEO of MBL North America, will present products from MBL's new Noble Line of electronics, including the N51 integrated amplifier, the N21 stereo amplifier, and the N31 DAC/CD player, using the unique, omnidirectional, MBL Radialstrahler loudspeakers.

Michael Fremer may be Stereophile's Mr. Analog but he was mightily impressed with the Moon 780D digital processor from Simaudio, which never meets a source of data it can't turn into music. Herb Reichert gets excited by an affordable tube preamp from Rogue, as does Fred Kaplan over an expensive VTL tube preamp; and Art Dudley and John Atkinson get much musical enjoyment from Sony and PSB speakers, respectively. And as well as our regular "Analog Corner," "Listening," "Gramophone Dreams," "Aural Robert," and "Industry Update" columns, Sasha Matson interviews Ayre's Charley Hansen—the "Wizard of Boulder"—Robert Baird talks to power-pop icon Bill Lloyd, and Robert Schryer kicks the issue off by examining how audiophiles can get into their "Happy Zones."