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Audiophiles love good deals and often enjoy communing with other enthusiasts. Do you ever go to audio swap-meets?

<B><I>Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977</I></B><BR>
by James Miller<BR>
New York: Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 1999. Paperback, 8.5" by 5.5", 416 pp. $15.00. ISBN 0-6848-6560-2.

Kathleen (K-10) and I first met Jack Renner&mdash;Telarc's Chairman, CEO, and Chief Recording Engineer&mdash;at Iridium, a tony jazz club here in New York. He was recording Benny Golson and the Jazz Messengers doing a rousing a tribute to Art Blakey. Now what would you think a guy who's won 31 Grammys over 21 years would be doing, exactly? Maybe feet up, a cigar languidly tracing curlicues in the air while directing his minions?

Harry Partch (1901-1974), composer and inventor of musical instruments, delighted in generating deep bass. Finding most standard orchestral instruments wanting in that department, he built the huge Marimba Eroica, which he described on his <I>A Glimpse into the World of Harry Partch: 27 Unique Instruments</I> (LP, Columbia MS-20576):

From the September 2004 issue, Art Dudley gets his mitts on the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/904spendor">Spendor S5e loudspeaker</A>, remarking, "I'm never more conservative than when the subject turns to home audio . . . . Give me thin-walled hardwood cabinets, obsolete tweeters, and handmade polypropylene woofers . . . ."

Two-channel lives: Once the bread-and-butter of electronics retailers everywhere, the two-channel receiver has become all but extinct. Rotel America is making a valiant effort to save this endangered species with its new RX-1052, a remote-controllable 100Wpc unit claimed to offer "audiophile-grade sonics"&mdash;it includes a phono preamp, and a "massively overbuilt" power supply&mdash;with versatile four-area multiroom/multizone capabilities and basic video-switching features. Whole-house system integration is made easier via three IR links and 12V trigger outputs. An RS-232 interface connects to touchscreens and other media controllers, and provides an upgrade path for the unit's firmware. Available with either matte black or black-and-silver front panels, the RX-1052 goes on sale in October at a suggested price of $899.

While the sudden popularity of MP3 files caught many audio and music industry players by surprise, the budding home media server market is being watched closely from its inception. As defined by <A HREF="http://www.instat.com">In-Stat/MDR</A&gt;, media server products are either PC-based, using an operating system such as Microsoft's Media Center Edition OS, or consumer electronics devices, like advanced set-top boxes, that offer both broadband connectivity and hard-disk-drive&ndash;based storage.