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I visit a Gypsy Fortune Teller

You won't get a meaningful answer from me because I am a columnist and if you read the fine print, those of us who from advanced age have risen to the eminence of "columnist" get to choose for themselves what they cover.

So I have no idea on what basis JA hands out review assignments to other writers, but I must assume that it is on the basis of, "The readers might want to know about this or, regardless, they should know about this." I assume that NAD's DAC/integrated amp made it to the cover because it was a significant improvement in nearly every way over its storied ancestor.

Sam Tellig has recently admitted in these portals that his (French accent alert) penchant for covering Musical Fidelity was because they were always ready to send him stuff.

I prefer to be a little pig in the forest and go hunting for my own Truffles.

Case in point, I often visit Parsons Audio's annual pro-audio gear fest, which is where I first encountered Bricasti's DAC. When I put one of my own recordings into the CD player that was attached to it, I knew that Bricasti's M1 DAC was special. My column coverage of it led to JA's listening to it and to his giving it a full review and in due course it was placed on the cover.

Through a Boston pro-audio contact I learned about the consumer speakers, Direct Acoustics' Silent Speaker II, designed by AR 4 co-designer Winslow Burhoe. It turned out to be a stellar bargain I still recommend.

Through a NYC pro audio chum I learned of Grace Design's headphone amp/DAC and later linestage, which I have covered the updates of going on 10 years.

It's really rather boring: I look for great audio at a fair price. Whether they buy ads never crosses my mind.

I have written for Stereophile for 14 years. Feel free to examine everything I have written under a magnifying glass. If you find anything you think smells fishy, let's have at it.

JM


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