Stephen Mejias

John Atkinson:

I heard music, and I liked it.

Today is a special Monday in Stereophile land. Today">http://blog.stereophile.com/wesphillips/061206ja/">Today is JA's birthday. Happy birthday, JA. Today is also Kristina Roman's first day with us.

This is the Ion TW1S tweeter module found in the Acapella High Violoncello II loudspeaker ($80,000/pair). As you can see from this picture, taken in JA’s listening room, the tweeter module rests beneath the Acapella’s midrange enclosure. (That big, purple bell&#151the color is actually Porsche Amethyst&#151has a diameter of 18.5”.) Housed in a perforated metal box and powered with its own AC cord, the tweeter module is a completely self-contained unit; it accepts a line-level input from an RCA jack and amplifies the signal with a class-A amplifier.

In my August column, page 43, just before I have a blast with the $400/pair Definitive Technology StudioMonitor 45 loudspeakers, I discuss a few letters I’ve recently received from readers, asking if I’m satisfied with reviewing “lower-end” gear.

Am I satisfied?

When we finally reached the top, we found a strange surprise: The rest of our classmates were there.