LATEST ADDITIONS

Now we can see that massive black hole so much better!

With handles!

Did the Big Four collude in setting 99&#162:/song download pricing?

Of course there were some great reissues this past year, but what <I>new</I> release would you say was the most significant in 2005? What is your choice for best new recording of 2005?

Don't bother to tell <A HREF="http://www.musicloversaudio.com">Music Lovers Audio</A> that audio sales have slowed. At a time when many dealers have abandoned two-channel audio altogether or chosen between de-emphasizing music and calling it quits, this Bay Area audio retailer has opened a second store a mere 30 miles from the original North Berkeley location, across the Bay in San Francisco.

Dave Barry posted this one today and it's just too fabulous not to share. Enjoy&mdash;and then spend the rest of the day listening to music with your families.

When I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tubepoweramps/152">reviewed</A&gt; VTL's MB-750 monoblock amplifier in the December 1997 <I>Stereophile</I> (Vol.20 No.12), it was a transitional time for the company. <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/153">Luke Manley</A> had recently taken it over, and he and his wife and partner, Bea Lam, were aggressively retooling. They introduced new business systems, including rigorous inventory and quality control; rebuilt VTL's dealer network around top-rank dealers; and systematically upgraded the products themselves to improve their consistency, reliability, manufacturability, and performance. VTL's goal, Luke explained to me at the time, was to build amplifiers that competed with the very best, and to "make the tubes invisible to the customer."