LATEST ADDITIONS

If you spotted an EICO HF-81 at the local Goodwill, you'd think nothing of this plain-Jane integrated amplifier in its nondescript gray case. But if you kept on walking, you would have passed up one of the best-kept audio secrets of all time. The HF-81 hails from hi-fi's pioneer days, before chromed chassis and slick Mac transformers. It isn't ultracool-looking, like early Marantz or McIntosh gear. It doesn't have the nostalgia factor of a Fisher. It's not a supercheap eBay steal like a Stromberg-Carlson or a Heathkit. So what's the deal?

Larger than a stocking stuffer, Musical Fidelity's X-Ray<SUP>v3</SUP> CD player is nevertheless quite compact and would be very nice to find under the Christmas tree.

"A few of us felt that we were the proverbial voices in the wilderness for a long time." So writes Gary Jacobson, whose <A HREF="http://www.quadesl.org">Quad ESL website</A>, is my favorite of the many good ones out there.

In an article published on June 28 on the website <I>Slyck.com</I>, a popular site dedicated to news and activism surrounding P2P networks, writer Thomas Mennecke contends that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has <A HREF="http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1237 ">retooled </A> its "strategy of launching a continuous barrage of monthly lawsuits aimed at approximately 750 individuals," a policy that has resulted in more than 18,000 suits since it was instituted three years ago.

Bob Stuart, chairman and co-founder of Meridian, will deliver a lecture on active loudspeakers to the UK Section of the Audio Engineering Society in London on Tuesday, July 11. Although Bob has been a champion of active speakers for 30 years, he has, surprisingly, delivered only one previous paper on the subject, at the AES UK Conference earlier this year. In this lecture he will expand on that presentation and be able to discuss the topic more fully with the audience.

Well, <I>I</I> would&mdash;if Hollywood could get it as right as these amateurs. But then, <I>Amateur</I> means doing it out of love and that's where Hollywood falls down when it makes movies out of comic books, um, I mean graphic novels.
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I've seen lots of links to the article on <I>LiveScience</I> about ants counting their steps in navigating the shortest route between two points. <I>Ho hum,</I> I thought, <I>I had a cow-orker who did the same thing when deciding which route to take to the bathroom at work&mdash;and he was way dumber than an ant.</I>