Last Wednesday, we told you our quick take on Juno Baby's line of educational entertainment products for kids (the long and short: cute, cool, and engaging). Adam Adleman, one of the founders of Juno Baby, took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to answer some questions:

How long have you been a Bay Area resident? What precipitated the move?

We moved to the Bay Area from New York City three years ago and have been loving it ever since. After years of life in New York and the birth of our daughter, we were ready for a dramatic change in our lives. The Bay Area suited us perfectly. We love living so close to a wonderful and progressive city while being surrounded by exquisite natural beauty.

To us, one of Juno Baby's distinguishing characteristics is the live orchestral music, versus the electronic simulation favored by other producers of kids' educational materials. Why was this distinction important to you?

Using live orchestral music instead of synthesized music was essential for us, especially considering Belinda's background as a composer. An infant's ear is entirely capable of hearing and appreciating the full textures, dynamics and colors of a symphony orchestra. In fact, research has shown that babies prefer more complex sounds such as speech and music to simple tonal sounds and that an exposure to such complex sound patterns actually helps to develop parts of their growing brains. There is no way that a simple electronic melody could ever represent the music as it was intended. To reduce the greatness and worth of a musical score to an electronic melody minimizes the complexities and artistry of the piece. An electronic sound can not replicate the richness in tone, nuance, and expressive qualities of a bow drawn across the strings of a violin or convey the performer's motive and emotion. We feel that children are capable of appreciating so much more than what's offered to them.

So now we know a little of what you guys think about music for expanding young minds -- what sort of music are you into today (for yourself)?

We definitely enjoy a very eclectic mix of music in our house. We have an enormous collection of classical music but also own everything from world music to pop. Right now in our CD player we have Puccini's Madame Butterfly, African lullabies, Cuban songs, an 80s compilation disc, and our daughter's Mary Poppins album.

The Bay Area is home to many intriguing small businesses. Still, color us surprised that we've found in Juno Baby a local purveyor of high-quality children's educational products that manages to encapsulate what we like best in a company.

It's got the "mom & pop feel" of a local company. Juno Baby has a smaller, focused product base than like companies. And, yet, it can still stand shoulder to shoulder with the big boys like (Disney-owned) Baby Einstein and similar. The product strikes us as "honest," for lack of a better descriptor--its leverages Belinda Takahashi, Ph.D.'s expertise to arrange orchestral music rather than canned electronic tunes. Her husband, Adam Adelman, contributes his directorial know-how. They started the company based on their opinion that there was a lack of good, quality educational products for their own daughter.

Awards? They've got 'em -- tons of 'em, most recently two of the company's DVDs earned 2007 Parent's Choice Awards--which means that now all three of Juno Baby's DVDs have won this award. Impressive, to be sure, but the true test was sitting down, watching a number of the Juno baby videos and listening to the music CD with our toddler.

We (that's SFist Jer and his wife) agree that the music has more to it than other baby videos we've seen and most kid-oriented CDs we've listened to. We're not music experts ourselves, so we can't pin it down in technical terms. We can say that there are more, varied instruments and the singing patterns seem more varied as well. The characters participate in different parts of songs -- sometimes singing simultaneously, sometimes apart, often creating a rich, layered effect.

In our estimation, it isn't that Juno Baby is such a huge departure from the other quality kid's stuff out there. It's appealing because it's local and not oversaturated. Sure, the Baby Einstein (and similar) stuff looks great and has its cute touches, but it's EVERYWHERE--almost to the point where it seems mandated that your child MUST EXPERIENCE THIS PRODUCT. (Sub-message: OR YOU'RE NOT A GOOD PARENT).