Fred Manteghian

<span style="float:left;color:#D4D4C7;font-size:100px;line-height:70px;padding-top:2px;font-family: Times, serif, Georgia;">I</span> remember someone telling me years ago that, in order to prevent 'P's sounding like spit on the radio, D.J.'s were coached to say 'B' instead. I remember WBLR, I mean WPLR, in New Haven, Connecticut being one such station. Sometimes you'd catch them, clear as day, with a 'B' rolling off their tongues, but for the most part they got away with it, no one the wiser.

I spent some time in the Lipinski / JVC room. Lukas Lipinski showed us a more stylized version of the L-707 speakers on custom stands that include stereo amps (either bridged and biwired or not-bridged and biamped – we're still a little confused). Tom Norton goes into more detail in his coverage below, so I won't repeat it here. Suffice to say, the sound from these speakers was, once again, very good, if a bit too loud.

The great thing about the Home Entertainment shows is the accessibility of great music. Seeing the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet at normal concert venue would find me with the typical seating I procure for paid events – somewhere near the back of the room. But with a little planning and penchant for arriving early, I just enjoyed four of the worlds most accomplished guitarists from the front row. I left invigorated and inspired to go home and try some of the techniques exhibited (beating on my guitar like a drum seems like one of the techniques I might be able to perfect). Telarc recording artists LAGQ hung around after the show at Telarc booths, with Sweet Amanda Sweet, signing autographs for their fans.

I keep hearing that thin is in. While my goal of joining the slender set has always been a struggle between food and evil, I'm at least beginning to surround myself with the trappings of that lifestyle. Gone is my bulky 36-inch direct-view CRT, replaced by a Belgian-waffle-thin plasma. Now comes this quintet of speakers from the original manufacturer of thin-is-in speakers, Magnepan. This was not my first experience with planar-magnetic speakers&mdash;a long-gone pair of Maggies was my first true audiophile love. But love is no substitute for food. Could these new Maggies sustain me?