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<I>Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people.&mdash;an old SLA slogan</I>

The French-made Kora line has been in and out of American distribution over the past decade. It's currently imported by Norman AV of Aventura, Florida. With the window of opportunity open again, I decided to listen to Kora's modestly priced hybrid integrated amplifier, the Explorer 150SB ($2030).

On Friday morning, March 25, 2005, my friend Maura Rieland, <I>Stereophile</I>'s show coordinator through the second half of the 1990s, e-mailed me to say that she had just learned of the passing of Ken Nelson.

The first National Critics Conference in US history took place May 25&ndash;29 at the Omni Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Subtitled "Critical Unity in Critical Times," the gathering brought together US and Canadian members of organizations devoted to visual arts, dance, jazz, classical music, and theater criticism.

With new music download services, including the move to higher resolutions, one vital question still remains for the music business: Will the majority of consumers prefer to continue purchasing music <I>&#224; la carte</I>, one track or album at a time, or will they prefer to subscribe to an unlimited library?

Not every interesting audio component gets a full review in <I>Stereophile</I>. Many more products are covered in Sam Tellig's, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/artdudleylistening">Art Dudley's</A>, Michael Fremer's, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround">Kal Rubinson's</A>, and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement">John Marks'</A> regular columns than I have the space to publish measurements for. However, I do ask for samples of products that I feel deserve to be measured, particularly when our original coverage raised more questions than it answered.

I'm always eager to fulfill my prime <I>Stereophile</I> directive: "To go where no audiophile has gone before," as JA often quips. As it happens, I've long suffered an itch to audition OTL (output-transformer&ndash;less) amplifiers, wondering how eliminating the output transformer might affect the sound. Enter the Graaf GM 200, with nothing but wire between its power tubes and the crossover.