LATEST ADDITIONS

It isn't enough to say that engineer <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/artdudleylistening/404listening">Denis N. Morecroft</A> is one of contemporary audio's few visionaries: He's one of a <I>very</I> few mature designers whose passion for doing things a certain way hasn't abandoned him in the least, and whose well-argued convictions seem stronger than ever. Thus, as others cave in to commerce&#151;the tube-amp designer who offers a solid-state product just to help his dealers fill a price niche, the source-component manufacturer who rails against digital audio one day and starts cranking out CD players the next&#151;DNM Design remains the likeliest of all modern companies to stay its course.

You know me. I'm not perzackly an audio slut, but I <I>am</I> easy. When Audio Advisor's Wayne Schuurman called me to pitch the Vincent KHV-1pre tube-transistor headphone amplifier, he pretty much had me at "tube" and "headphone." But I wasn't familiar with Vincent Audio.

Secondly, we listened to Bobby Womack's The Facts of Life. Actually, I didn't even listen to it. I had to get some guitar stuff prepared for band practice later that evening, but Alex chilled on my couch, listening to the LP.

After Side 1 was over, he screamed, "This guy is AMAZING."

Then there's <a href="http://www.pbase.com/sid_presley/the_record_collection">this site</a> full of awesome Asian record covers from the 60s and 70s. (Thanks <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/project_sapphire_at_the_end_o…;.)

Oh, <a href="http://www.sleeveface.com/">Sleeveface</a&gt;, how you do crack me up. (Thanks <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/1108awsi/">Ariel</a&gt;.)

Reader "dr.d" asks: "Is it better to have a decent system that allows all recordings to sound good, or to have a system that might make some not-so-hot recordings no fun to listen to?" What's your preference, a system that always creates beauty or one that can reveal the ugly truth?

Continuing with the theme started with last week's question: Which single composer or performer would you recommend to introduce someone to jazz music? And why?