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In addition to the big players, high-end audio fosters a healthy number of small and modest-sized manufacturers. Reader Rob Neary wants to know if readers have a particular company that they feel deserves more recognition.

Rumors have been circulating for some weeks now that the Chinese-owned, UK-based International Audio Group (IAG), which owns and operates the Quad and Wharfedale brands, was in talks with TAG McLaren, with the intention of taking over the latter's Audio division.

Primedia, the leading targeted media company, announced March 30 the newsstand arrival of its recently launched <I><A HREF="http://www.connectedguide.com">Connected Guide To The Digital Home</A></I>. Part of Primedia's Home Technology & Photography (HT&P) Group, <I>Connected</I> is the first consumer magazine dedicated entirely to adopting and integrating audio, video, information, telecommunications, security and other personal and home technologies.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is continuing its legal campaign against file sharing. In late March, the trade organization launched a new salvo of lawsuits against 532 individuals and 21 university computer networks across the country&mdash;89 of the accused violators used school networks for downloading or sharing large numbers of copyrighted recordings. The RIAA claimed that the alleged violators shared an average of 837 songs.

From the March 2004 issue, Kalman Rubinson files his report on the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/304adcom">Adcom GFA-7805 five-channel power amplifier</A>. KR notes, "It was easy for me to decide on their top-of-the-line five-channel powerhouse, the GFA-7805, because it embodies the same spirit that the GFA-555 did in its time: lots of power, no frills, good value."

For audiophiles who love multichannel music, the center-channel speaker is a problem second only, perhaps, to that of bass management. In many ways, the rerouting of bass to a subwoofer or to the front left and right main speakers is dictated by room acoustics or the bass limitations of the other speakers. On the other hand, most of us had no real need for a discrete center-channel to fill in the middles of our traditional stereo systems. In fact, one of the glories of really good stereo is the simulation of a convincing central image, such that there's a seamless soundstage from beyond one speaker, across the room, to beyond the other speaker.

I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Jeff Rowland's products. Going back to the Model 7 monoblock power amplifier and the Model 5 stereo amplifier of nearly 20 years ago, Rowland's designs always sounded essentially musical to me, and quite forgiving and non-fatiguing.