Sound System

For the last 25 years, car buyers who cared about sound have driven their new cars directly from the showroom to a car stereo shop. Once there, they had the crummy-sounding, factory systems replaced with after-market units that performed almost as well as their home systems. Cost-conscious car buyers began to purchase their new cars without sound systems and put the money saved toward units they choose themselves. Finally, after years of losing lucrative sound system sales, many car manufacturers have wised up. Ford and General Motors, for example, have formed working relationships with well-known home entertainment manufacturers.

If Julie Vick didn't know it already, she certainly realized that the sound system in Haddonfield Memorial High School's auditorium was inadequate after helping students get on stage at the right time during last month's PTA fashion show. "All the sound went up and out. I couldn't hear a thing from backstage," said Vick, the PTA president. The show raised money for college scholarships. Since December, Vick also has been leading a community effort to raise money for a new sound system, which could cost as much as $23,000.

New technology brings new troubles. That is reinforced every night when that wonder of Alexander Graham Bell interrupts our dinner, bringing an unending stream of annoying phone calls from telemarketers. The same can be said of another questionable advancement in communication: the Sound System. Great idea, bad results. True, neither the telephone nor the electronic sound system is what you would call new - unless we're looking over decades here - but they have brought relatively new problems.

They swarmed through the parking lot of the giant birthday-cake-hockey-puck-cruise-liner of a building. They rode the glass escalators through the airy atrium with its giant sculpture hanging from the ceiling. They walked through wide corridors of glistening tile. And when they emerged into the central arena, many of the thousands of hockey fans at last night's inaugural game at the CoreStates Center looked up at the precipitous tiers of seats and the 16-ton scoreboard and dropped their jaws.

It seemed like a good idea. When the decades-old sound system in the Pennsauken High School auditorium blew days before a senior awards assembly in June, administrators figured they had to get it fixed - quickly. So they did, buying a new amplifier and new equipment, all in time for the awards ceremony. The only problem was the Board of Education. Irritated that they were not consulted about the $6,600 purchase and upset that it might have disrupted tentative plans for a more comprehensive overhaul, school board members have delayed paying the bill while they ask administrators exactly what happened.

Spectators can watch from the beach for free this weekend as about 100 Hobie Cats compete off Wildwood Crest in the Wildwoods Classic Cup regatta. A sound system will relay descriptions across the beach off the 7100 block of Ocean Avenue.

2012 Kia Sorento SX AWD vs. Mitsubishi Outlander 3.0 GT S-AWC : In Part 2 of 2, how the three-row crossovers compete on the road. Price as tested : Kia, $37,150; Mitsubishi, $33,605.   Base prices : The Sorento SX starts at $34,850 for the all-wheel-drive version. A 2.4-liter four in a front-wheel-drive version starts around $23,000. (It's just changed over to the 2013 model year.) The Outlander two-wheel drive with a 2.0-liter four starts at $22,345.

Welcome to the fabulous world of the Beautiful People, who spend their nights quaffing pricey bubbly, hobnobbing with the famous (or infamous) and shaking their well-toned forms to the latest in techno and house. Whether you're a certifiable BP or merely a wannabe, there are two Shore spots that must be tops on your list when it comes to chi-chi club-crawling. The first is Deja Vu (formerly Tattinger's), New York Avenue and the Boardwalk in Atlantic City; 609-348-4313. A popular New York-style spot for many years, Deja Vu boasts a state-of- the-art sound system, cavernous linoleum dance floor and enough BPs to give Tinseltown a run for its money.

2012 Buick Verano 1SL front-wheel drive: A baby Buick. Price: $26,850 (no options). Marketer's pitch: "You shouldn't have to upsize to upgrade. " Conventional wisdom: Edmunds.com says it has a "quiet and luxurious cabin; comfortable ride. " But it is "underpowered compared to competitors. " But people who know GM ask, "Is Verano to Cruze as Cimarron was to Cavalier?" Reality: This is not a baubled-up Cruze. And I didn't find power that lackluster, either.

I AGREE WITH Trevor Jordet (letter July 9) about the 4th of July concert here, televised by ABC. Garth Brooks was to be on stage at 8:30 for a concert and would return for an encore before the fireworks display. I was very, very disappointed! I'm disenchanted with the whole televised ABC thing. The sound was loud and clear when Jill Scott was on stage and she did a marvelous job, but my husband and I braved traffic and the crowds for a concert by Garth Brooks. It seemed to take forever for him to finally have his turn onstage, and there was no appropriate sound system.

'CELEBRATION" came pumping through the sound system at Temple's Liacouras Center and Abraham Massaley, like most of Imhotep Charter's delirious players, stood, listened, beamed, grooved and even sang at a spot near midcourt. Then, after some prodding by teammates, he decided to step forward and bust a move. How fitting . . . A few minutes earlier, the 5-11, 160-pound combo guard had uncorked a basketball version, thus helping the Panthers claim their fourth Public League championship in five seasons.

WASHINGTON - On Wednesday night, Jayson Werth watched as his old Phillies teammate and friend Raul Ibanez hit a ninth-inning, game-tying home run, then a walkoff home run, to lead the Yankees over the Orioles. "Baseball this time of year is the best time in sports," Werth said. "I watched all the games. I probably texted him 20 times. " Thursday night, it was Ibanez' turn to congratulate Werth, whose leadoff homer in the bottom of the ninth gave the Nationals a 2-1 win over St. Louis and forced a decisive Game 5 Friday night in their National League Division Series.

2012 Buick Verano 1SL front-wheel drive: A baby Buick. Price: $26,850 (no options). Marketer's pitch: "You shouldn't have to upsize to upgrade. " Conventional wisdom: Edmunds.com says it has a "quiet and luxurious cabin; comfortable ride. " But it is "underpowered compared to competitors. " But people who know GM ask, "Is Verano to Cruze as Cimarron was to Cavalier?" Reality: This is not a baubled-up Cruze. And I didn't find power that lackluster, either.

What is, musically speaking, Manfred Honeck's deepest wish? Tuesday night at the Mann Center with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, heady interpretive ideas sprang from virgin canvas. What you thought you knew about Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 wasn't quite there anymore. Tempos switched like the wind. Phrases once merely broadly noble were now finely etched. After an evening of three programmed works and two encores - five composers - Honeck's ambition for illuminating scores anew both startled and pleased.

2012 Kia Sorento SX AWD vs. Mitsubishi Outlander 3.0 GT S-AWC : In Part 2 of 2, how the three-row crossovers compete on the road. Price as tested : Kia, $37,150; Mitsubishi, $33,605.   Base prices : The Sorento SX starts at $34,850 for the all-wheel-drive version. A 2.4-liter four in a front-wheel-drive version starts around $23,000. (It's just changed over to the 2013 model year.) The Outlander two-wheel drive with a 2.0-liter four starts at $22,345.

FROM MORE THAN a few feet away, binoculars will be needed to see the newest sports memento in Dennis Gabert's house. Nevertheless . . . "This'll be the coolest," he said, beaming. The latest treasure is a 5-inch strand of the net that was formerly attached to the southwest basket in Malvern Prep's gym. Gabert snipped it Saturday night after the Friars outlasted Germantown Academy, 55-52, before a juiced, overflow crowd to finish 8-2 and claim a second consecutive Inter-Ac League championship.

FROM MORE THAN a few feet away, binoculars will be needed to see the newest sports memento in Dennis Gabert's house. Nevertheless . . .  "This'll be the coolest," he said, beaming. The latest treasure is a 5-inch strand of the net that was formerly attached to the southwest basket in Malvern Prep's gym. Gabert snipped it Saturday night after the Friars outlasted Germantown Academy, 55-52, before a juiced, overflow crowd to finish 8-2 and claim a second consecutive Inter-Ac League championship.

It was the late 1950s and rock-and-roll was just reaching the fancy of Roy Clair and his older brother, Gene. They weren't terribly good musicians, but one day, their father brought them home a sound system. The Clair brothers figured out how to use sound to make better sock hops and high school dances around their little town in Lancaster County, and by their early 20s they were doing the same at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster. In 1966, they got to do it for the big school concert - The Four Seasons.

There was a false alarm at Lincoln Financial Field yesterday, and it had nothing to do with what was happening on the field. The Eagles were trailing the San Diego Chargers, 17-13, in the fourth quarter when an alarm was tripped in the club suite level, which holds private boxes and the press box area. At first, it sounded like a new cheer added to the Linc's sound system, but then a voice came over the public address speakers asking for an orderly exit from the stadium's inhabitants.

Another case from the files of Rex Publica, Urban Shrink: A staccato rain pounded the windows as Thelonious wafted from my sound system. Waiting for my 3 o'clock to arrive, I leafed through Psychiatry Today and Governing. Ah, my 3 o'clock. The hardest case in a career full of them. In the '80s, I cured Seattle of seasonal affective disorder, with a little help from Starbucks, of course. I've helped San Francisco with its narcissism, Kansas City with its borderline personality, New Orleans with its exhibitionism.