Michael Fremer

Computers and vacuum tubes go together like Trent Lott and flyaway hair, right? The last time filaments glowed in computers was during the 1960s, when a computer was a building. I remember laughing at the ponytailed computer-science dweebs back then, who spent their college days playing nursemaid to a football field's worth of electronics capable of little more than adding two plus two. Chained to a computer half the day, as most of us now are, guess who had the last laugh?

How much fun can you have with an audio component? Fun for me is having a Nakamichi BX-300 analog cassette deck running into Musical Fidelity's evolutionary, revolutionary CD-Pre<SUP>24</SUP> preamplifier, with the unit's <I>digital</I> output feeding the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/605/">Alesis Masterlink</A> hard-drive-based digital recorder, and being able to monitor the <I>digital</I> loop through the preamp once again in the analog domain.

Rarely has the debut of a new loudspeaker company and its inaugural model created as big a buzz as did Lumen White and their Whitelight speaker at the 2001 Consumer Electronics Show. Driven by Vaic tube amplifiers in one of the larger corner rooms at the Alexis Park Hotel, the big Whitelights had a look and a sound that attracted continuous crowds. Of the questions among audio cognoscenti that I overheard at the end of each day, two of the most common were "Hey, did you hear those Lumen Whites?" and "What? Can you speak louder?"

Antares is a giant red star in the constellation Scorpio. According to Rockport Technologies' Andy Payor, the $41,500/pair Antares loudspeaker is the "ultimate" reasonably sized, full-range loudspeaker, and is built to a standard "unequaled in the industry." Rockport's $73,750 <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//analogsourcereviews/258/">System III Sirius turntable</A> came with equally boastful claims that turned out to be anything but hyperbole. Has Rockport done it again with the Antares?

It's not every Consumer Electronics Show that someone introduces a $29,000 solid-state phono preamplifier&mdash;and I miss it. The 2002 CES was one. My show report in the April issue made it <I>seem</I> as if I'd found out about it there, but the fact is, someone clued me in after I'd returned home. I needed to come clean on that.

Reviewing a vacuum-tube power amplifier is like having your pants pulled down in front of a large crowd of people. I don't know how else to describe the feeling of spending a month or two luxuriating in fabulous sound, then writing a glowing review, then receiving a copy of the review as it will appear in the magazine, complete with John Atkinson's assessment of the amp's test-bench performance, which is usually miserable.

Not since Sonus Faber's <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/139/">Amati Homage</A> loudspeakers took up residence in my listening room has a piece of audio gear elicited so many "Oohs," "Aahs," and "Wows" from friends as Hovland Company's dramatic-looking, EL34-driven Sapphire power amplifier&mdash;especially when it was switched on and glowing orange and blue. It drew unsolicited attention and admiration even when turned off. Not that, on or off, its unusual looks didn't also have their share of detractors. As with Hovland's chrome-fa&#231;aded, blue-backlit <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/291/">HP-100 preamplifier</A>, some found the Sapphire too shiny, too gaudy, and generally just too much. Me, I'm thumbs-up on the Sapphire's looks&mdash;I found myself staring at it incessantly. But anything that draws such intensity of response, whether love or hate, must be doing <I>something</I> right. B&O shouldn't have a monopoly on striking-looking audio gear.