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From basic components to the obscure tweak, there are thousands of products to satisfy every audiophile need. But are there any unfulfilled audiophile needs still waiting to be met?

On our regular visit to the Electronic Freedom Foundation's (EFF) <A HREF="http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004340.php"><I>Deep Links</I></A> website last Friday, we were alarmed to learn of proposed US Senate broadcast flag legislation that includes provisions to limit fair use to "customary historic use of broadcast content by consumers to the extent such use is consistent with applicable law."

On Friday, January 20, five different friends forwarded Chris Morris' <I>The Hollywood Reporter</I> column on the closing of LA's Westwood Boulevard Rhino Records store. Established in 1973, the record store closed its doors on January 19 (although it staged a parking lot sale on January 21 and 22). Rhino owner Richard Foos blamed the store's demise on a number of factors, including pricing competition from national chains, the lack of demand for "a physical product," and "too many other things to do and too many ways to get your music without paying $18 for a CD."

You can't always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need&mdash;and Quad, bless its cockamamie heart, is the company that gave it to me.

Lovers of Italian wine, travelers to Italy, and, of course, Italians, may be familiar with this story. It seems that in the year 1111, Henry V was traveling to Rome to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor. A member of his entourage, one Giovanni Defuc, was very fond of wine, and had the practice of sending ahead one of his servants to sample the wine in each place. When the servant found a wine that he particularly liked, he would write "Est!" on the door of the establishment, which was a signal to his master that the wine <I>is</I> (<I>est</I>) good. Having arrived at Montefiascone, the servant found a wine he thought so superb that he wrote on the door of the inn "Est! Est!! Est!!!"

Extra-terrestrial radio is poised to celebrate Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 250th birthday. From Wednesday January 25 through Friday, January 27, XM Satellite Radio will broadcast live performances by many of the most celebrated Mozartians of our time direct from the Carolino Augusteum, a 17th-century castle and former home of the Archbishops of Salzburg that overlooks the Salzburg Cathedral and the Mozart Platz. Artist interviews and sound portraits of the Salzburg milieu will spice up the proceedings.

Huck: "<I>Heh heh heh</I>. Snooze, you lose, baby!"