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Reference MM de Capo i loudspeaker

As names go, "Reference 3A" is awful. It sounds less like a company than it does a model number, as in the Dudco Reference 3A (on sale now wherever Fourier speakers used to be sold); I find it hard not to expect a Reference 3B with each new year. Add to that a cumbersome and somewhat meaningless model designation, "MM de Capo i"&mdash;what do the <I>M</I>s stand for? what does the <I>i</I> stand for? haven't there been other de Capos in audio recently?&mdash;and my poor brain becomes utterly confused. And the older I get, the less I can tolerate being confused. Forgive me if, during the course of this review, I get lazy and fall back on the lazy and admittedly somewhat Clintonesque <I>this speaker</I>.

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Acarian Alón Li'l Rascal Mk.II loudspeaker

Since 1991, Acarian Systems' Carl Marchisotto has brought home the bacon by focusing most of his efforts on conventional dynamic, three-way, floorstanding designs in the $2000-$7000/pair range&mdash;28 different loudspeaker designs in 12 years, 13 of them still in production. That's why Home Entertainment 2001 showgoers who were familiar with previous Al&#243;n efforts were taken aback when Marchisotto unveiled a new flagship for his Al&#243;n speaker line: the Exotica Grand Reference, a $120,000 line-source ribbon/dynamic hybrid system comprising five 7' towers. For those attracted to cost-no-object designs, the debut of the Exotica Grand Reference was quite a spectacle.

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The Return of Fried Products

One of audio's true originals, Irving "Bud" Fried first made his mark in the late 1950s by becoming an early US importer of Lowther corner horn and Quad electrostatic loudspeakers. By 1975, he had established his own company and began releasing speaker models under the Fried nameplate.

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Added to the Archives This Week

The audiophile Rosetta Stone? From the December issue, Kalman Rubinson goes looking for the perfect all-purpose audio player as he reviews the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/1203linn">Linn Unidisk 1.1 universal disc player</A>. As KR notes, "Even more important than comprehensive compatibility will be any truly universal player's ability to optimally play back all of these formats without robbing Peter to pay Paul."

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CES Debutantes

Audio manufacturers love to make big announcements at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas (which runs January 8&ndash;11, 2004), and the upcoming show is no exception. In addition to Fried Products' aggressive relaunch (see <A HREF="/news/122203fried">related story</A>), several other companies are heading in new directions.

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