Wes Phillips

As we <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/news/101606advanced/">reported previously</A>, on Saturday, November 11, retailer Advanced Audio will celebrate its 20<SUP>th</SUP> anniversary with "an open format seminar" at the Sheraton Tacoma Hotel (1320 Broadway Plaza, Tacoma, WA 98402. Tel: (253) 572-3200). Seminar participants will include Richard Vandersteen of Vandersteen Audio; Steve Silberman, Ayre Acoustics's national sales manager; Joe Harley, renowned recording producer and AudioQuest vice-president; Shane Buettner, technical editor of <I>Ultimate AV</I>; and Wes Phillips, a senior editor at <I>Stereophile</I>.

I've been a little remiss in writing about one of the best tools for travel I've experienced recently: Ray Samuels Audio's Emmeline The Hornet ($350), a tiny (3" L by 2" W by 1" H) rechargeable portable headphone amplifier. I tend to travel with my <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/mediaservers/934">iPod</A&gt; packed with hi-rez music files and a pair of low-impedance headphones. That's not a marriage made in heaven, so I also need a headphone amplifier. Over the years, portable headphone amps have gotten better and better while getting smaller and smaller. The Hornet is the smallest I've discovered so far and is my current favorite.

<B>Foreword by Sam Tellig: </B>I wanted to like the Sci Fi Teslas. I originally heard these speakers at Dave Wolf's store in New Canaan, Connecticut&mdash;no longer in business, alas.

There are certain manufacturers for whom every new product implies the promise of countless modifications, Usually a month or so apart, culminating inevitably in a version so far removed from the original that it must be assigned a new model designation&mdash;usually a letter suffix ranging from A, to D. By the time E is envisioned, another CE Show is approaching, so the decision is made to give the unit an exterior facelift and a brand-new model number. Presto! A new product for CES.

Thanks for the kind birthday messages, everybody. I had a great day. Joan & I went to the <A HREF="http://www.frick.org/">Frick Collection</A> to gaze at our favorite Vermeers, Franz Hals, and J.M.W. Turners, not to mention checking out a comprehensive display of the New Testament drawings of <A HREF="http://www.frick.org/exhibitions/tiepolo/">Domenico Tiepolo</a>, which were completely new to me.

One clich&#233; that never loses its aptness is "end of an era." And it certainly applies to the passing on October 29 of SME’s founder, Alastair Robertson-Aikman. While there remain a handful of survivors from the original "golden age" of audio, few of them were still active in 2006. AR-A, as he was known to friends and staff, wasn’t simply still active: he was still tweaking his sound system and planning new products.

On Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson's <I>Swiss Radio Days, Vol.15: JATP Lausanne 1953</I> (TCB 02152), the performances are so extraordinary that only the music itself can fully tell the tale.