Art Dudley

Here we are, back to the Arcam I know and love: a company that not only invents good products, but good product <I>categories</I> as well. Like the Arcam Black Box of the 1980s, which gave so many people fits at the time&mdash;yet which, once you heard it, made good musical sense. It made good marketing sense, too: With that one stroke, teensy, weird, nestled-away-in-the-English-countryside Arcam did nothing less than create the domestic market for outboard digital-to-analog converters.

I wish the domestic audio industry of 2005 were more like the pop-music industry of 2005, with its variety, vitality, and ability to reach beyond its boundaries to move people. And its sense of fun, which hi-fi often seems to entirely lack.

<I>"Good career move."&mdash;Michael O'Donoghue on the death of Elvis Presley</I>

Jimmy Martin, the self-styled "King of Bluegrass," died at a hospice near his home in Hermitage, TN on May 14. Martin had been diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2003, but the progress of the disease was slow, and the first of two hospice stays was cut short by an apparent recovery. Significantly, Martin never gave up his plans to perform at this year's Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, IN.

<I>Nothing is wonderful when you get used to it.&mdash;E.L. Howe</I>

"Spread out."&mdash;<I>Moe, addressing Larry and Curly</I>

"Spread out."&mdash;<I>Moe, addressing Larry and Curly</I>