The Audiophile
John Pearsall

Recently, as I was leaving a Lash LaRue Film Festival, an agitated little man popped out of the shadows and in portentous Shakespearean tones croaked, "Beware the Ides of March! Or April if you file the short 1040.". He gave me a distracted, glassy-eyed stare and whacked me with the manual from TurboTax ‘96® and vanished into a dark alley. Poor man. Probably facing an audit. I drove home wondering what Lash LaRue would have done if he were accosted by a little fat man from the shadows. I’ve noticed people get so tense around tax time. But — not quite as tense as an audiophile picking up a Recommended Components issue of Stereophile to see if he "done good".

A few weeks later, after attending a revival called The Greatest Films of Troy Donahue, I had a hunch I should see my friendly used audio specialist. I wondered if there was some well-made device that wanted to follow me home. There was. For minuscule bucks, I bought a pre-owned 1995 Sony™ K717ES cassette deck featuring a center-mounted, dual capstan transport, three heads with off- the-tape monitoring, Dolby™ B, C and the recent Type S noise reduction, manual record biasing, motorized cassette loading and a new rigid clamping system, and HX Pro. In the past dozen years, I’ve owned two Sonys, two Aiwas™ and a Nakamichi™. We don’t talk about my Tandberg™ adventure anymore.

All were three head machines, except the Nakamichi. Three of the five units were dual-capstan designs which I’ve found to be a great way to minimize the variability in older tapes. Listening and operational differences among these decks were substantial, even when the price levels were similar. The two Aiwa machines were my overall favorites, featuring great sound and a Dolby C that tracked. The top-of-the-line 1986 Sony was close behind and excelled in its control section and transport design. The Nakamichi sounded very spacious and airy on playback, but lacked some features I needed, such as off-the-tape monitoring and HX Pro.. But, the new Sony ES with its more advanced transport design, motorized cassette clamping, superbly accurate Dolby tracking, lovely, airy top-end response and remarkable ease of use easily wins this round. I really like this machine.

Lest you think it odd that I would be praising the humble audio cassette in our bodaciously serious "High Fi" publication, let me assure you that many current audio cassette decks could not have been predicted thirty years ago. Philips™ literally gave away manufacturing licenses for the format when it was an office dictation machine with few musical pretensions. (Or any serious musical hopes!) My, how their offspring has grown! The audio cassette is a mature technology, and today’s superior blank tape is a remarkable buy.

Bear with me here. You may be missing an opportunity that could fill part of your musical life. Cassettes don’t deserve to be called an anathema to serious audio. For what it does so brilliantly, the audio cassette has earned its place at the table and belongs in more, not fewer of our audio systems. Many have already declared cassettes to be an obsolete technology, but consider this:

First, there are few things more convenient and economical for taking your music with you than the audio cassette. (And I’m not suggesting that you buy or survive on pre-recorded cassettes. (Pre-recorded titles are increasingly hard to find, and are seldom that good anyway.). If you spend a lot of commuting time in your car or ride public transportation, there’s only a couple of choices. You can read or you can listen. Or look out the window. Or talk to Mrs. Biddle, who spits when she talks. Here’s what I do. I use my Sony Walkman™ or the in-dash cassette deck and bring a tape of something I’m working on, whether it’s music or spoken word. Spoken word tapes, if you’ve never used them, combine the best of listening and reading by keeping you more current with the fast-moving publishing world. A superior use of time in a freeway jam, don’t you think?

My second use for the audio cassette is to share my musical treasures with friends and relatives. Ah! copyright infringement, you say. When I excerpt my recordings for friends, I create an interest that didn’t exist before. And using a low-cost, high-quality, ferric oxide cassette yields far better sound than any pre-recorded cassettes I own, with the possible exception of some real-time duplicated, Dolby B titles from a small company called In-Sync, and some great Polygram classical titles once in a while.

In summation, if the audio cassette suits your needs, find a mid-priced or better cassette deck that includes Dolby S. Buy either new or used if the condition and price suits you. A Dolby S machine won’t be any older than a ‘94 model anyway. Even if you never actually use Dolby S (though I think you will) its inclusion brings an advantage that isn’t often explained on the sales floor.

In 1993, Dolby Laboratories had not launched a new audio cassette noise reduction system since 1981 with Dolby C. This time around, Dolby’s engineers kept careful watch on the exact implementation of Dolby S as specified in their manufacturing license. Dolby S transport requirements were tightened to maintain critical head azimuth parameters along with closer mechanical tolerances for the transport. Sony’s engineers added greatly improved motorized cassette loading featuring rigid cassette shell clamping. By using advanced proprietary ICs in their record / playback electronics, Dolby and Sony have hidden the encode/decode process so well that I can’t hear it doing its level-shifting thing. And in my Sony, the Dolby B and C settings perform with extraordinary refinement, maybe even better than my last Aiwa. (In case you’re worried, Dolby S is quite pleasant when played back in the car or on a Walkman set for Dolby B.) So, you might as well use the "S" setting and enjoy the benefits on your home system.

Another happy discovery! I think I mentioned it a while back, but I repeat: I use Type 1-Ferric oxide tape, Fuji DR-1 or its TDK D or Maxell UR counterparts. They’re all good, but the Fuji is a little richer sounding. My local discount chains have one of the Type 1 brands on a coupon special at least once a month. I can buy a big brick of C-60s or C-90s for a few dollars and I get my tape cost down to 75 cents for a C-90 and around 50 cents for a C-60. It’s true, I like to save a buck, but why do I really use Ferric oxide tape? It sounds better to my ear, more dynamic, more focused in the mid-range, a little more forward. The noise floor is barely noticeable when using any of the three noise reduction settings and Dolby S removes most of the low frequency grumbys, too. Further, by using some manual biasing while listening on the third head, I can customize the top end response to suit my own tastes or the music. I was a die-hard Type II tape purchaser a few years ago, but not now. Type II costs a lot more and I prefer the extra liveness of the Ferric Fuji DR-1. As for any significant mechanical differences in the Ferric type I and the costlier Type II shells and rollers, I can’t find any. With thirty years of experience, the modern cassette is a refined product that’s as evolved as it’s ever likely to be.

Finally, the cassette machine costs relatively little, has greater than ever utility, steadfastly refuses to die and more than ever, has major musical chops. I’d rather have a modern cassette machine for overall usefulness with a recording capability that’s not embarrassed even by the old Revox open reel machine I retired last year. Let’s face it. Except for stationary analog recording / playback assignments, the open-reel machine is not widely useful. DCC is out of the running — in fact, was stillborn; Mini-Discs sound truncated and cold. Recordable CDs remain a curiosity. The DAT machine can perform well, but is used primarily for original recordings in music and science data.

In 1984, when CD listening was an experience midway between a root canal and a bad case of jock itch, I was an informal way station for the CD players everybody was hustling into the marketplace. For no special reason, anybody remotely connected to audio brought out a sub-contracted player, hoping to grab the brass ring. The factory reps brought me one hideous machine after another. I despaired of ever hearing anything off the little silver devils I could live with. Just then I lucked into a discovery that helped ease the pain. But, to this day, I can’t explain why it works. I have some theories. I’ll explain.

I discovered that making a Dolby B cassette copy of the CD removed many of the irritating artifacts of the early CD players, bad original masters and CD conversion and mastering, etc. The taped result often sounded damned good unless the frequency balances were screwed. I tested the difference by switching between direct source and off-the-tape sound using the monitor function. Sure enough. Nasties here, nasties gone, nasties return etc. Sometimes, just to hear a new recording, I just let the tape run in record and listened to the play head. Thus, the tape became a mysterious filtering "transfer" medium; a fixer, a band aid, if you will.

Is there some arcane effect inherent in magnetizing a rusty piece of plastic film? Is this an effect caused by the record biasing system? Is it a phase shift that occurs as a result of the electronics driving coils in the magnetic heads? Is it something that the mirror image Dolby B process introduces when it encodes and decodes? Or is there something I’m not thinking of that maybe introduces a "super-dithering" effect coupled with friendly phase shifting? Calling all engineers!! Enlighten me. Solve my dozen year mystery.

Next time you’re building a listening-media room . . . . . . .

"Holmes, why should I go to all that trouble, just to listen to the Gramophone?"

"Elementary, my dear Watson. Without decent silence, dear boy; sound isn’t much fun."

The condominimum and apartment market has brought many innovative sound isolation techniques to the market. Commercial sound contractor’s secrets are readily available to any serious audio hobbyist willing to research it, just for the asking. Try these:

Owens Corning, 1-800-438-7465, free booklet, "System Thinking for the Home".

CertainTeed Corp., 1-800-782-8777, free booklet, "Fire Resistance and Sound Control".

The Building Research Council, 1-800-336-0616, "Noise Control" (Booklet F5.0; $1.75).

Get moving! Do something about that appalling room! Get on the phone and ask for product and installation brochures. Instead of a new audio gadget, buy yourself some decent acoustics and some well earned silence. Wouldn’t it be better if you didn’t have to send your progeny to the movies four times a week and could stop putting sedatives in their milk?

Mike and I had a busy spring concert season, and since I missed Dreadnought Dave’s deadline for last issue, there will be two live concerts this time.

On March 4th, we heard the most exciting young quartet perform; the best I’ve heard in years. Appearing at Lincoln Hall at Portland State U., the Angeles String Quartet played an exquisite program with accomplished, instinctive ensemble, impeccable technique and most of all, a refined sense of big, romantic phrasing and considerable warmth. They’ve only been together for 8 years, yet they play with the assurance of a 40 year European ensemble. Hailing from Los Angeles, they bring to mind the other phenomenal quartet from L.A., the Hollywood Quartet, from the late 40’s to about 1961.

First up, the classical Haydn Quartet in G major, Op. 64 was brisk, stylish, sweet- natured, yet not formal and remote. Completing the first half, the Korngold Quartet #3 was lush and liquid as a chocolate covered cherry. Really high calorie music with a touch of the acerbic and occasional flashes of Errol Flynn derring-do. If you only know Korngold from his movie scores, you gotta’ check out his concert works; this quartet and the Violin Concerto are a good place to start. (Gil Shaham / Previn for the concerto.)

The second half featured the Schumann Quartet in A major. The Angeles players possessed ample mojo to make this quartet really sing. What had I thought was just another odd exercise in Robert Schumann’s chamber music catalog, is really a first rate piece. As usual, Lincoln Hall cooperated and let the Angeles sound breath and project while preserving fragile detailing. Despite its origins as a college lecture hall with multi-use design, Lincoln Hall’s a beauty.

Note: If the Angeles String Quartet comes to your town, buy some tickets and go. If you love small string ensembles or think you might, the Angeles is a vital young group that contributes major skill and finesse to the chamber music art. They’re terrific and you should hear them!

I’m going to write the "Angeles" a fan letter. I’ve written only one fan letter in my entire life and that was on hearing the Concord Quartet’s Nonesuch LP of George Rochberg’s String Quartet #3. Teresa Stearn at Nonesuch was kind enough to forward my letter to Mr. Rochberg at the U. of Pennsylvania. He seemed surprised to receive a fan letter and graciously answered. (The Rochberg Quartet #3 is a must have, by the way. I know of few chamber works that light my fire like this one does.) And in further praise, I consider Teresa Stearn’s leadership at Nonesuch in the 70’s to be one of American music’s finest hours. And the Nonesuch recordings, often with the composer in attendance, or sometimes even commissioned by Nonesuch, are more wonderful than most LP collectors can appreciate without sampling a few. In the 70’s, I feel that few record companies could touch the recording quality, artwork and annotation of a Nonesuch project. And remember, these were mid-priced LP’s selling relatively small numbers.

Mike and I attended an uncommonly adventurous concert on March 21st and again, in Lincoln Hall at Portland State U. Based here in Portland, we have a wonderfully fresh performing group, drawn from music faculties at our local universities. They call themselves "Fear No Music". They’re devoted to unusual and new music with a special emphasis on local composers from the Pacific Northwest. Their season is usually five concerts, performed both here and in Seattle, and they’ve introduced many new composers to their audiences. Not only are they talented musicians, but I’m delighted with the stylishness and sheer chutzpah of their musical mission.

The minute we knew about it, Mike and I cleared our calendars and bought tickets. Picture this, if you will. A four piano arrangement by Seann Alderking of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps with percussion and a conductor, no less, just to keep the thing from flying apart. (As you can imagine, multiple time signatures and tricky entrances can wreck things if you lose your concentration for just a second; thus the conductor.) Well now! Let me tell ya’ - - from our seats in the exact acoustic center of the hall, we found ourselves staring into the business ends of two Yamaha 9’ and two 7’ concert grands with an extensive percussion battery around the back of the stage! Had the pianos been Bösendorfer Imperial Grands . . . Shazamm! Even the conductor doubled on gong and tambourine; everybody was gettin’ busy! (We got our perfect seats by being a half hour early at the door for general admission seating. Since Mike and I present formidable mass and have a combined body weight of nearly 550#, we swept into our carefully selected seats with no resistance. We are a force of nature. You shoulda’ been there!)

Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring more than lived up to its billing. Since March 21st was the first day of spring this year, it felt all the more appropriate to hold some pagan rites. The opening sections with all the tremolos were seductive and subtly colored on the upper keyboards of the pianos. The complex strands of Stravinsky’s orchestrations held up beautifully in Alderking’s arrangement, and there were times I hardly missed the orchestra. Later, the familiar crashing chords were scary in their immediacy, yet infinitely subtle in detail. It brings home the point that people tend to forget that the piano is a percussion instrument. During the Sacrificial Dance where all the stops are pulled out, the collective fury of the four grand pianos could made us jump in our seats, yet on the quietly seductive passages the scaling was intimate. Having heard Stravinsky’s own arrangement for two pianos in a late 60’s EMI recording by Ralph Grierson and Michael Tilson-Thomas, this is a much fuller experience with the percussion proving a real asset. Bravo! A wondrous effort from F.N.M.!

Just before Le Sacre we heard a piece that was absolute dynamite! Witold Lutoslawski’s Variations on a theme of Paganini for Two Pianos. If you only know the Paganini variations from Rachmaninoff’s version, this will be a delicious surprise. These are heads-up, smart and very entertaining as well as sardonic, witty and full of surprises. Nobody sleeps! The variations are available in this two piano version and one for orchestra (A new one on Naxos with the Polish Radio SO) Now they move near the top of my Lutoslawski list, surpassed only by his badly under-rated Concerto for Orchestra and Symphony #3.

In this season finale, Fear No Music presented one of the most innovative concerts I’ve seen in the last couple of years. Concerts like this are what America needs in the dumb, reactive 90’s. Audacious, original programming including first performances of deserving young composers played by young performers will go a long way toward rescuing us from the cultural tar-pits that have been sucking away at our Nikes™ since the early 1980’s.

(Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra is available on a dazzling 1987 recording on Delos featuring the debut of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra with James De Priest at the helm. That recording, a collection entitled "Bravura" (+ Strauss’: Don Juan and Respighi’s: Feste Romane), was John Eargle’s first recording venture into our otherwise distressing performing space, Portland’s Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. With considerable skill and much patience, Eargle somehow achieved a microphone placement that yielded both a brilliant and balanced sound on all three Delos recordings made there through 1989. A sad fact remains; it’s a sound we’ll never hear when we attend live symphony performances.

Paul Romer, Stanford University and quoted from Worth magazine.

Precisely equal numbers of electrons, protons, neutrons, leptons, quarks. Completely inert, utterly useless. But, smells like a rose. (From a recent Washington Post contest.)

Interested in Corian™ ?

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For a brochure detailing cutting, drilling and shaping of Corian™, write:

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Or you may call 1-800-724-4008 or 1-800-724-1002.
Sample material is available by mail order.

Champion of the arts, Newt Gingrich, suggested recently at a news conference that the highly paid entertainers themselves should become the main funding source of the arts in America. National Endowment Chairwoman Jane Alexander attacked the comments as "turning the endowment into an elitist organization run by a few wealthy entertainment industry individuals." And the Newt contends the NEA is already elitist.

Why does America send the arts on a suicide mission by taking most creative expression out of our schools and communities, calling it frills? Why is art no longer seen as the necessary, deepest expression of our people? Why is Congress playing the role of destroyer, when in the thrall of the goddam television, we need to have our imaginations, kicked into high gear, expanded and stretched like never before? Don’t they realize that art is good business? Or could it be that imaginative people don’t much care for conformity and unflinching obedience? Or are the destroyers in the Congress afraid we’ll start looking at somebody’s provocative art for its prurient interest and accidentally discover en masse that the Emperor is totally 100% butt nekkid!? A point worth pondering, don’t you think?

The Portland Art Museum mounted the superb Tombs of China exhibit last summer and brought millions into the local economy for 1996. That should have brought rejoicing to every bottom-line capitalist in Puddle City. But, no. We still hear the outcry at budget time that the arts are a frill. Only readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmetic’ are going to make it through this Congress.

In addition, the Portland area is blessed with several live theater groups, many pop music venues, Broadway road shows, plentiful and good jazz, classical concerts large and small, a Shakespearean company, a major chamber music festival in June and July called Chamber Music Northwest, The Portland Baroque Orchestra led by Monica Hugget, two youth symphonies, numerous choral groups, pipe organ recitals, at least three movie art houses, a film studies program at the art museum, a couple of full time art schools plus all the programs at various universities. In addition, Portland is the home of countless painters, sculptors, other artisans and photographers. We also top the publishing lists for reading the most books per capita.

It’s obvious to me that the artistic climate in Oregon is one of the great forces for good in the our community and it more than pays its own way much of the time. But, still the Congress can’t (or more likely, won’t) lend a helping hand to those on their way up the arts ladder. The "contrarian blue nose with an agenda and an ax to grind" can’t realize that art isn’t necessarily going to be pretty or advance a Southern Baptist Convention point of view or be attuned to our precious bodily fluids. But, that’s not what art is all about, is it? I’ve always thought that artists were valuable because they think outside the normal bounds of the everyday, transcending the ordinary and acquainting us with the fantastic. An artist’s purpose is to do some of our dreaming for us and show us different ways of seeing. But, then today, corporate thinking doesn’t seem to value people in the workplace, either. The two conditions are related.

If you’re wondering why I spend so much time on the performing arts in an audio magazine, let me put it bluntly. As we approach the new millennium, too many people are turning inward and toward the safe and the mundane. But, if you and I have been watching the same parade, you already know that the next hundred years will require imagination, daring, innovation and sheer guts on an enormous scale. We simply won’t have enough of those qualities without the arts.

Think about this. Artistic expression is the great safety valve, the great mirror, a personal rejuvenator, a vision stimulant, and a great way spur new thinking and get the mind out of panic mode. Art spills over into the inventive, innovative mind as it seeks new solutions, art brings people together in unique ways, art gives children a view of the magic of imagination, art counters our penchant for being literal and linear and dour, art teaches us to look, listen, feel, and see with our inner eyes. If art touches us deeply, we see with our hearts. Art teaches the joy of being heard, seen, appreciated and unique when we create our own art. Art gives us the renewing experience of surprise and delight. With art we can be children again for a while. Art is that thing that allows the fantastic to touch down on the earth and become ours. Art tells a unique version of the story of who we are.

Why would we not support something that’s been so good for America?

In the home stretch, the last three years of this Millennium, I’m still trying to clear my crystal ball for the next ten years and more. A little Windex™ and paper towels, scrub, shine. . . . Big discovery!! The immutable fact of living on planet earth is the ever increasing force of change itself. For good or ill, we’re being dragged, kicking and screaming, toward a brave new world. For months, it seems, there’s hardly any change at all. Then, WHAMMM!! Getting kicked in the teeth by change! You know the feeling. By now you’ve seen all those curiously 90’s enterprises where the foxes guard the hen house while wearing Kentucky Fried Chicken™ uniforms.

In a recent issue of Positive Feedback, I reported that long term recording schedules for classical music were being canceled for the corporate bottom line all over the world. I decided not to let the issue drop there, and got curious about the current state of pop music and music in general. I sought out the opinions of two very talented and experienced record retailers in the Portland area. They have more than 20 years apiece in the business, so they’ve seen most of the modern era in music. Each of these men started our conversations by shaking their heads and noting that if it weren’t for the great sounding CD re-issues of 20 to 40 year old material, the business would have gone down the toilet two years ago.

Pressing forward, I asked them about the current state pop music and new releases. While stating slightly different opinions, their overall assessment went something like this:

"The (expletive) record companies don’t give a crap about us anymore. They load us with all these (expletive) no-talent releases and expect us to sell ‘em. Then they keep raising the wholesale prices to us while peddling the very narrow list of current hits to the buying clubs, warehouse stores and electronics chains to be sold as weekend "doorbusters" at or below our cost. (They were, of course, referring to the warehouse stores like Wal Mart, Costco, Circuit City and others.) We’re the music specialists with a huge inventory of quality music and they expect us to pay our bills without a piece of the chartbuster hits. It’s not fair, it’s wrong and unfortunately, we think there will be many more music stores in trouble this year."

Sympathetic to the squeeze they’re in, I asked them about the likelihood of finding pop releases that achieve any sales figures worth mentioning. Their answer:

"The big five companies send us a blizzard of new releases every month. Their attitude? Throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks. If it doesn’t, here’s another one you can try. At the store, we routinely go through whole days of sampling new releases without hearing anything that has sales potential."

On average, how many of the new releases have any chance of decent sales?

"Fewer than one in ten. Until the mid-eighties, there was a ratio of about one in three. Now we send back huge boxes of unsold CD’s. Nobody wants them. You can’t give them away."

What ever happened to the knowledgeable, talented record producers who found the raw musical talent, nurtured it and guided it through the recording and promotion process?

"Old concept. Mostly a thing of the past. The process has become the "Art of the Deal". Lawyers and managers are in charge. They’re not very concerned with musical talent anymore. Now it’s a "concept" they’re after and how they can best market that concept. With their videos on MTV, the choreography, the special effects, the babes with Dow-Corning boobs, snazzy poster art, great packaging and carefully positioned air play in key markets, who needs talent anymore? What a major label produces is usually in reaction to what a competitor has done last month. It’s follow the leader."

Doesn’t that sound a lot like Lemmings running toward a cliff?

"Yes."

Will the market ever return to the good old days?

"Not with today’s management teams from the five multi-national recording companies calling all the shots. These guys haven’t the ear, the daring or the imagination for the music business. Final approval for a recording project is given in three languages from three office towers in Hamburg, Tokyo and New York. And in making these decisions, all that’s required in today’s corporate climate is some experience with contract law, merchandising, playing suck-up, and the ability to run an impressive spread sheet. It’s kind of sad, really. But, then, freshness and musical talent is no longer artistry; it’s product."

I have written a freely organized paraphrasing of our several conversations. While it preserves the essence of our discussions, I’ve organized it from my notes spanning a month or more and combined some responses. I left my music retailing friends with a clear sense of their increasing frustration with a business that they still love, but no longer understand. Since both of these men have been involved in both studio production and retail distribution of recorded music, my hunch is that neither one believes the music business will get better anytime soon.

Send a mere pittance to:

Chesky Inc.
Box 776
Provo, UT 84604
Ask for: Chesky’s Gold Stereo and Surround Set-up Disc (CHE-151)

This test CD has 48 tracks of two channel, home theater surround and sub-woofer set-up material, plus great Chesky recorded music examples. It’s one of the most useful test discs I have. A joint project of David Ranada and Chesky.

Send your check for $11.98 (US market only) Others please inquire. Be sure to include the number CC-97032100073 on your check and allow six weeks for delivery. Recommended.

All things old are new again #2. . . . . . . . . .

I gather from several reports in the current press that a whole new round of Audiophile CD transports will be coming down the pike soon and will be based on commercial DVD drives from the computer industry or top end entertainment transports. It seems that the quality DVD transport has some special qualities that may be useful in the CD transport market. Time will tell.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a specialized database for collectors (about six years and that was DOS) and, presto, now there’s two in a row from Doubleware Publications in Westlake, Ohio.

From Doubleware’s "Software in a Book" series we have the music collector’s Audio File and, for film collectors, Video Store. At this writing, I’ve only just gotten Audio File loaded, so the report on their operation and use will have to wait for the next issue of PF. In the meantime, for further information on these collecting programs, call the helpful folks at 1-800-871-3136. At $39.95 each, you may want to jump in and try one or both of them. Heaven knows it’s hard to remember what you’ve got and where to find it. I’m quite impressed with the look and feel of Audio File. It seems to have a lot of qualities built in that make entries instinctive and easy for a CD collection entry. More later. . . . . . . .

If you can still locate a copy of May ‘97 Audio at retail or in a used periodical store (or maybe from Audio Magazine as a back issue), be sure to pick up their Special 50th Anniversary issue with all the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s adverts, nostalgia and historical articles. I had a lot of fun reading it. You will, too.

Audio Adventure, missing from the mail box for a while, has re-appeared in a new form. Welcome back. It’s been re-named Play magazine and is now a bi-monthly. With a shift toward a broader "home entertainment" market, but staying with some of their successful features from before, it’s a good read. Tom Miiller is the founding editor, and the magazine(s) have always been notable for pointing out the "good stuff" at the low end of the serious audio market (say, under $1K). We wish you very success with your reborn magazine, Tom and Art. The very best from the PF staff.

And so, to sleep, perchance to dream. . . Snork!. snorzzzz! Wake me up when we start having fun.

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