LATEST ADDITIONS

Sad to hear of the death of guitarist/keyboard player/singer/songwriter/mad genius Jay Bennett at age 45. I don’t want to be a hater here but like many others, his portrayal in the Wilco film, <I>I Am Trying To Break Your Heart</I>has always been very problematic for me.

When I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpreamps/simaudio_moon_evolution_p-7_lin…; the Moon Evolution P-7 preamplifier ($6900) from Canadian manufacturer Simaudio in March 2009, I was impressed by the qualities of both the audio engineering and the sound. It was a no-brainer, therefore, to follow that report with a review of the matching power amplifier, the Moon Evolution W-7. In March 2006 Kalman Rubinson <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/306sim">reviewed</A&gt; Simaudio's Moon Evolution W-8, which offered at least 250Wpc into 8 ohms (I measured 310Wpc at clipping). The W-7 looks identical to the W-8, but is 10 lbs lighter, offers 150Wpc into 8 ohms, and retails for $8900 compared with the W-8's $13,500.

Over the course of his 30-plus years in high-end audio, Nelson Pass's designs have never been far from the leading edge. In his first Threshold amplifiers he pioneered the use of dynamically adjusting bias and cascode circuitry; then, in the later Stasis models, he switched gears to the simpler approach of pure class-A. All were innovative designs, and among the very best-sounding amps of their time, but were just warmups for what was to come. In 1991, Pass Labs introduced the Aleph 0, a class-A amplifier that was a startling departure from conventional solid-state designs and combined design elements generally thought mutually exclusive: transistors, single-ended operation, and the ability to output 75Wpc into an 8-ohm load. Not surprisingly, the Aleph 0 sounded like nothing else, and became the basis for the widely acclaimed series of Pass Labs amplifiers that evolved over the next decade.

I've always wanted to review a Linn product.

<I>Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.</I>&#151;Hebrews 11:1

After four years of virtual inactivity, new and updated Aragon and Acurus high-end amplifiers, preamplifiers, and processors are slated to return to the marketplace. The long-established brands, which have been the property of Klipsch since 2001, are now in the hands of two enthusiastic veteran Klipsch electronics engineers, Rick Santiago and Ted Moore of <A HREF="http://www.indyaudiolabs.com">Indy Audio Labs, LLC</A>.

If high-end audio were to carve its own Mt. Rushmore, whose faces would appear there&#151;besides that of <I>Stereophile</I> founder <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/66">J. Gordon Holt</A>, of course? It's likely that no two audiophiles would ever come up with identical lists of subjects, but I wouldn't be surprised if they could agree on at least one name: <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/1191pass">Nelson Pass</A>.