RAMBLINGS.

Welcome to Issue #83, an issue with a little something for just about everybody as we review a wide variety of components and speakers and a dazzling array of recordings--old, new, borrowed, and blue. As we promised last issue, our publishing schedule is getting back on track, with this issue following a little more closely than usual after Issue 82. Life is good.

I am typing these lines on Labor Day weekend. All of this issue has already been sent to New York for layout, except for this column, which is always the final piece of the magazine to be completed. It has been hot here in central Ohio over the past few days, hot and humid and very uncomfortable. Musically, however, the atmosphere is cool and refreshing, as I have been listening to the Northern music of Sibelius (Tom Lyle and I listened to a couple of recordings of his Symphony No. 4 during July and August for this issue's Double Double, finding his music so blessedly brisk and bracing that we have decided to compare more Sibelius for Issue 84) and a new recording of Christmas music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on Telarc. By the time you read about these recordings in Issue 84, perhaps the weather where you reside will be more in harmony with the music. (Which reminds me, I'd better get my furnace checked out ...)

Something John Horan and I have been discussing and dreaming about for quite a while is the possibility of publishing not only a magazine, but also books. Our longtime dream is getting closer to reality; we are currently putting the finishing touches on our first book venture, which will be a compilation of CD reviews that I have written over the past five years or so for More Jazz Than Not, updated and augmented with reviews that never appeared in the magazine. Actually, there are two books on the way, one covering classical recordings and the other (which will be the first to press) covering everything else. Our plan is to bind these publications inexpensively (spiral binding is a possibility) and make them available at relatively low cost. We hope that folks will find these books both useful and entertaining. We shall see.

How to Communicate with Us: To order a new subscription, change an address on an existing subscription, order back issues, or take care of other subscription-related matters, our business telephone is [phone], our business fax is [phone], our business address is 403 Darwin Drive, Snyder, NY 14226, and our business e-mail address is [e-mail]. To correspond about any editorial matters, submit equipment for review, pass along hot audio gossip, put us on your mailing list, or just blow off steam, write KWN directly at 9775 Mills Road, Ostrander, OH 43061. To submit a classified ad or inquire about display advertising, please give Don Nowak a call at [phone] or send him an e-mail at [e-mail].

Web-savvy readers will also want to check out our brand-new website, sensiblesound.com, which is still in development but starting to take shape.

Previews of Coming Attractions: Among the equipment we have in or have been promised for review are speakers/ subwoofers from Atlantic Technology, Dunlavy, EgglestonWorks, Energy, Infinity, Legacy Audio, Linn, Phase Technology, Velodyne, and Waveform Acoustics; components from Legacy Audio, Linn, NAD, Onkyo, Shure Bros., Yamaha; and much more, including plenty of music reviews, and a few surprises, so hang in there and try not to lose any sleep over it (it's just a hobby!). -- KWN

One Last Thought: "Music, when it works, is the sound of thought."--Lewis Thomas