“The company doesn’t advertise it as such, but this new Klipsch system could be called home-theater-in-a-box, actually two boxes including the subwoofer. The Quintet consists of 4 identical satellite speakers that are tiny, with integral mini-stands that allow angling up or down, and a slightly larger d’Appolito-style centre channel…”

“…Rotel’s RP-955 is one such new design. Like most Rotel products the RP-955 is aimed squarely at the market’s bulging midsection, where it competes with similar tables from Dual, NAD, Pro-Ject, and, especially, the wildly popular Rega Planar 3 (which just happens to sell for exactly the same price in Canada). Like most of its immediate competition the Rotel is an unsuspended, belt-drive table which comes packaged with a dedicated arm and cartridge….”

“Sound Designer is the credit Steve receives on this film, and it is a technical and artistic activity, one that has interested AM since he first started making voice recordings on a Philips mono recorder in the late 50s. In the production of a film Steve Munro both makes original recordings (usually 6-track) and takes those already done and creates a context and meaning for them in the film…”

Andrew Marshall listens to jazz and classical DVD Audio releases from Classic Records and Chesky, straps on the cans for a bevy of binaural recordings and even spins some spoken word in the Summer 1999 edition of his Supersounds Column…

“Definitely designed to be a full range reproducer with very high dynamic capability, the Studio 100 uses a pair of 8″ polypropylene woofers with very large cast baskets, a 6 1/2″ woven Kevlar midrange, and for this second iteration of the Studio 100, a new aluminum dome tweeter identical to that used in the Active 40. All drivers are designed and made in-house, Paradigm, like API, a very vertically integrated company…”

“Perhaps it’s unfair to characterize the Totem Arro as the Kate Moss of speakers, but it is a thin little waif of a thing, with a 4 1/2″ woofer/midrange and a 1/2″ dome midrange. It’s also cute, nicely finished in rosewood, with just about the smallest footprint I’ve seen. It sits on a 7 3/4″ by 8 5/8″ base that fits spikes, and is rather tippy; I’m inclined to want to use some Bluetac to secure it to the base. The Arro should not go into houses with rambunctious children or dogs, not to forget exploratory cats…”

“Verity Audio is a Quebec City manufacturer that bases its claims to high quality loudspeakers on very fast, accurate drivers and extremely inert and solid cabinets. The Fidelio is quite heavy at close to 60 pounds. Though a single unit structure, the cabinet is in two parts joined by alternating layers of rigid and absorptive materials to keep bass energy away from the mid/treble unit on top…”

“This small monitor has been an unusual project for Mirage in that most of their flagship products are large, like the M-1si. But chief designer Ian Paisley took it upon himself to design and build a small monitor that was neither bipolar nor Omnipolar, and recruited young engineer Andrew Welker to work with him to complete the project. Both of their names are on the gold-plated plaque underneath the binding posts on the rear of each speaker…..”

“With Audio Alchemy gone a void was left in the industry. Not only was it that much harder to get high performance entry level equipment, the industry as a whole lost one of its most effective recruiters, few companies being as successful in turning neophytes into hopelessly addicted audiophiles. Thankfully that void has started to fill with companies like Musical Fidelity introducing their X-Series line of small, modular components…”

“As owner of a PDR-05 CD recorder, I didn’t find too many surprises in its Elite successor, with all the same features and a few more to boot. The main extra capability is that of recording rewriteable CD-Rs, called CD-RWs. These can be erased starting with the last track recorded, or by erasing the whole disc for re-use…”

“John Hiatt is the Billy Bob Thornton of country music: once you find out who he is you suddenly realize he’s been in every production made in the last twenty years. Just about every country artist worth his salt has covered a Hiatt tune, and Slow Turning is a good hint why. Each song has a sweet honesty at it’s heart, urging you to listen on even when the tune feels a little too familiar…”

“I have no idea why music like this exists. There’s nothing really wrong with Chuck Mangione, just as there’s nothing really wrong with margarine or Erma Bombeck. What we have here is a clear example of the smorgasbord effect: some artists aim to be a smorgasbord of versatility, while others aim to entertain people at a smorgasbord. There’s really no point in evaluating Chuck’s flugelhorn, for I suspect that if after all these years buying one of his albums still seems like a good idea, then you probably know what you’re in for..”

“In case you somehow hadn’t noticed, there’s something of a craze surrounding Cuban music these days, especially resurrected vintage Cuban jazz. Touched off by the first Buena Vista Social Club record two years ago (which has since sold over 100,000 copies in Canada alone) the interest in formerly obscure and impoverished, aging Cuban Jazz giants like Ruben Gonzalez and Ibrahim Ferrer continues to grow. With this second disc, a documentary by Wim Wenders, and the performers themselves set to make their way through Europe and North America this summer, you can expect to hear a lot more about Cuban Jazz in the coming months….”

“If you’re a Red Hot Chili Peppers fan I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that long time Chili Pepper guitarist John Frusciante has returned to the band after a hiatus spanning several years and one album (the middling One Hot Minute, which aside from about three tracks, was very forgettable). The bad news is Californication is not the return to form that fans might have hoped for…”

“The T770 is a complete A/V receiver with an unusually full complement of features. Though the brochure barely mentions it, and the manual ignores specs altogether, power output is rated at 80 watts each for the front channels, and 70 for surrounds (the brochure also says 70 x 5, but why quibble?)…”

Highlights Include: Verity Audio Fidelio, Mirage MRM-1, Arcam Alpha 10 Home Theater System, NAD T770 Dolby Digital A/V Receiver, Klipsch Synergy Quintet A/V Speaker System, Pioneer Elite PDR-19RW CD Recorder, Entech 205.2 Number Cruncher D to A Converter, 32″ NTSC Direct View TV Sets from Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic, Film Sound Designer Steve Munro (The Sweet Hereafter) talks to Andrew Marshall about how a soundtrack is put together…

“Giving the name “complete” to the components in this system of French origin and oriental manufacture reminds me of an old insult: “Everyone wants their life to be complete, and yours is, because you’re a complete (fill in appropriate word).” I suspect the word “complet” has different connotations in French, but I think the whole idea is to get you to buy the whole system…..”

“This new modular home theatre system from Arcam could be called plug-and-play, though it’s the dealer who’ll be doing the plugging, putting the DAVE (Digital Audio Video Entertainment) module into an Alpha 10 integrated amplifier, and configuring a 10P basic amplifier by adding in the same internal space an additional Power Amplifier Module (PAM) for the centre channel…”

“The SP403JA may be the only rear-projection LCD television in the marketplace. It’s certainly the only one I’m aware of. Measured diagonally, its screen is 39 1/2″ or 100 cm, and is 16 x 9 in aspect ratio. This means that with standard 4 x 3 pictures it’s pretty much equivalent to a 27 or 29″ screen, while with letterboxed pictures from DVD it becomes closer to about a 45″ TV, but without the black bars at top and bottom. A bit of a chameleon, this TV…”

“Loewe (pronounced “Looveh”, not “Low”, “Louie” or “Loovee”) is a German company that has been in business since 1923, when it was founded by Dr. Sigmund Loewe, and within 10 years was in regular production of TV sets. They also claim to have produced the world’s first “cassette tape player/recorder in 1951″. No other achievements are listed between 1933 and 1951, which makes one wonder what they did during the war years. Radar?…”