I first saw the Shure SE530 at the <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2006/010606shure">2006 Consumer Electronics Show</A>, when it was dubbed the E500. The '500 shared the current product's three-armature driver technology and in-ear, sound-isolating, sleeve fitting scheme, but that early prototype seemed almost crude in comparison with the SE530.
When Hong Kong–based music lover and electronics-equipment distributor Klaus Heymann (footnote 1), now 70, first began organizing classical-music concerts as a way to boost sales, he had no idea he would end up founding the world's leading classical-music label. But after starting a record-label import business and meeting his future wife, leading violinist Takako Nishizaki, the German-born entrepreneur sought a way to promote her artistry. First he founded the HK label, which specialized in Chinese symphonic music (including Nishizaki's recording of <I>Butterfly Lovers</I>, the famous violin concerto by Chen Gang). Next he established Marco Polo, a label devoted to symphonic rarities.
I don't want a symphony orchestra in my room: That's crazy. I want their <I>music</I>, played with enough realism that I can hear how it's done.
I want to start this year's gift recommendations by briefly revisiting the results of my Musical Cultural Literacy for Americans write-in competition, which ran in the April issue. All 12 winning entries of 12 selections each are <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/407fifth/index3.html">posted online</A> (footnote 1).
Now that Christmas has come and gone, and my need to hear Bobby Helms' "Jingle Bells Rock" has subsided — I'm not sure but I think it has something to do with those electric guitar flourishes—, it's seems an appropriate time to say something about the continuing and astonishing turmoil in the record business which according to most sources experienced a nearly 20 percent decline in sales of physical product compared with last Christmas.
For a cat who only drinks water, Huckleberry certainly does a passable imitation of a drunken stupor.
It occurs to me that in the three years I've been posting Friday cat blogging, I have never photographed Bagheera asleep. That wary look of hers is as close to complacent as she gets.
Now <I>Rolling Stone</I> has noticed the <A HREF="http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17777619/the_death_of_high_fidel… wars</A>.
