Want to start an audio newsgroup fire-fight? Just put the three letters "ABX" in the subject line of your post, sit back, and watch the pros take over. Read where it all started 15 years ago in "The Highs & Lows of Double-Blind Testing," which John Atkinson has compiled from the years 1985 and 1986, when an argumentative thread ran through Stereophile's pages discussing the benefits (or lack of) of double-blind testing methods in audio component reviewing—all triggered by J. Gordon Holt's review of the ABX Comparator.

Next up is Larry Greenhill's review, from September 1999, of the Mark Levinson No.334 power amplifier. Greenhill writes: "The No.334's minor physical changes gave me no hint of its major sonic improvements over the No.331. The more powerful No.334 turned out to be far superior in bass slam, dynamics, and definition." Read his in-depth assessment and find out more about an amp that Greenhill says his dad would have loved.

And finally, another review from the pages of Stereophile Guide to Home Theater, this time featuring the Pioneer PDP-501MX 50" Plasma Monitor. Joel Brinkley reports that, yes, folks are actually buying this $25,000 monitor, and also reveals what they're really paying for it. For the price of five or six HDTV sets, how does it look? Let's just say that being a flat TV forgives most sins.