LATEST ADDITIONS

John Atkinson measures the distance from his microphone to the Giya’s midrange drive-unit. For a larger view, visit <a href="http://forum.stereophile.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/2218/passwor… Gallery</a>.

After we lifted the big Vivid Giya onto a rotating platter, JA got under the hood and connected the speaker cables to his test amp. JA <i>loves</i> it when speaker terminals are hidden beneath a speaker. For a larger view, visit <a href="http://forum.stereophile.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/2217/passwor… Gallery</a>.

JA uses a little camera to monitor the rotation of the speaker on the platter. The platter turns at five degree intervals while JA measures impulse response. For a larger view, visit <a href="http://forum.stereophile.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/2216/passwor… Gallery</a>.

JA uses a different mic, set at a much closer proximity to the drive-unit, to capture the side-firing woofer’s nearfield response. For a larger view, visit <a href="http://forum.stereophile.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/2214/size/bi… Gallery</a>.

<object width="450" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KhXAltdDjTM&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KhXAltdDjTM&hl=en_US&fs=1&&quot; type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="450" height="385"></embed></object>

It's been over two years since I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/subwoofers/907jl">reviewed</A&gt; a pair of JL Audio's Fathom f113 subwoofers. <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/1106mitr">Kalman Rubinson</A> and I both gave the f113 top marks for delivering clean, powerful bass in a wide variety of full-range systems. At the end of the review period, JL Audio's Carl Kennedy told me that they wouldn't send me another subwoofer for review until they had developed one that outperformed the Fathom f113 (footnote 1). To this day, the Fathom f113 tops the subwoofer category in <I>Stereophile</I>'s "Recommended Components."

If the cover of the latest issue of <I>Uncut</I> is any indication, “lost” albums never lose their appeal for the musically&#150;inclined or obsessed. Music fans always want what they don’t have or haven’t heard or hear is <I>hard to get</I>. It’s the allure of the forbidden record. And it’s a chief symptom of the record collecting psychoses.