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The subject comes up every now and then: Audio reviewers don't write nearly enough negative reviews. One old attention-seeker on Audio Asylum went so far as to characterize <I>Stereophile</I> and our would-be competitors as "happy face" magazines&mdash;a joke in which he seemed to take tremendous pride&mdash;simply because we hand out a lot of As and Bs. By that logic, assuming that a certain percentage of underachievers is inevitable in any population, our schools aren't handing out nearly enough Fs. (I have a suggestion for where they can begin.)

Melissa's been listening to Fleet Foxes. She told me so yesterday, as we walked along Newark Avenue, into the setting sun. <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/092805withloss/">Like old times</a>.

The e-mail popped in at around 4pm last Friday afternoon.

In an unfortunate coincidence, a few nights before the Cabasse team arrived to install the company's unusual-looking La Sph&#232;re powered speaker system, VOOM HD Networks, Monster HD channel, which is exclusively devoted to B horror movies, broadcast <I>The Crawling Eye</I> (aka <I>The Trollenberg Terror</I>), a 1958 black-and-white howler starring Forrest Tucker. I watched.

Those of you in New York City this weekend should have no trouble finding a bit of music to enjoy. In fact, it might prove difficult to avoid. You may even find yourself dancing&#151wildly, uncontrollably&#151as you stroll along one of the city's many great stretches of sidewalk. The sidewalks themselves will vibrate like drum heads, bend like strings.

Last year, when Epos importer Music Hall contacted me about reviewing the then-new M16 floorstanding loudspeaker, I hesitated. I had been very impressed with the M16's little bookshelf brother, the M5 (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/405epos">my review</A> in the April 2005 <I>Stereophile</I>, Vol.28 No.4), which I found uncolored, detailed, and a great value. Most of all, the M5 had an incredible balance of performance. But several times in the past, having been seduced by a wonderfully balanced bookshelf speaker, I've then been disappointed by one of its costlier, floorstanding brethren. The larger speaker might share the bookshelf's overall character, have deeper bass, and play louder with less strain, but too often that magical sense of balance that I had so enjoyed in the smaller speaker would be absent.

The Jazz Journalists Association announced the winners of its 2008 awards today. Here’s most of them—followed, in parentheses by how I voted: