LATEST ADDITIONS

<B>TORD GUSTAVSEN TRIO: <I>The Ground</I></B><BR>
Tord Gustavsen, piano; Harald Johnsen, double bass; Jarle Vespestad, drums<BR>
ECM 1892 (CD). 2005. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Jan Erik Kongshaug, eng. DDD. TT: 60:13<BR>
Performance <B>****&#189;</B><BR>
Sonics <B>****&#189;</B>

In his "From the Editor's Desk" in the March issue of Stereophile's e-newsletter, John Atkinson recounts how, years ago, "erstwhile audio scribe Enid Lumley" demonstrated her pizza-box-tripod tweak at a hi-fi show. Lumley, JA writes, "placed the tripod atop a CD player and convinced her audience—including me—that the sound was better."

Living with a brand-new Cyrus amp was a pleasantly nostalgic thing to do, even from the start: It arrived in a clean and downright attractive carton that seemed designed specifically to contain a brand-new Cyrus amplifier. Think of it! And I haven't even mentioned the nice owner's manual or the balance control or the headphone jack. As I said: the good old days.

Let us pause for a moment to reflect on the passing of one of hi-fi’s most venerable components. For 30 years, Rega’s Planar 2&mdash;recently, simply known as the P2&mdash;has provided countless hi-fi enthusiasts with their first taste of the potential that the vinyl disc has to offer. Now Rega has decided to stop making it.

When audiophiles speak of the pioneers who laid the foundation for their hobby, certain names are spoken with particular reverence: Kellogg, Rice, Klipsch, Voigt, Walker, and Janszen all indisputably make the all-star team. Arthur A. Janszen, like John Hilliard at Altec Lansing, worked on US Navy projects during WWII, but after the war focused on developing an electrostatic speaker for cockpit use in Naval aircraft. The resulting Office of Naval Research Technical Memorandum was groundbreaking in its description of construction techniques and sonic performance, but the Navy declined to develop the project further and, in fact, phased out the developmental aspect of the department.

Reader David L. Wyatt, Jr. likes to haunt the used and cutout bins and wants to know what your best find has been to date.

Usually, a <I>Stereophile</I> "Follow-Up" follows up (duh!) a full review of the component in question. This review, however, is intended to flesh out a cryptic comment made by Wes Phillips in April's "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/405awsi">As We See It</A>": "When Apple introduced its AirPort Express wireless multimedia link," Wes wrote, "it even included a digital port so that an audiophile&mdash;such as <I>Stereophile</I>'s editor&mdash;could network his system, using the AE to feed his <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/159">Mark Levinson No.30.6</A> outboard D/A converter. 'Sounds okay,' deadpans JA."