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For <A HREF="http://www.vivendi.com">Vivendi Universal SA</A>, when it rains, it pours. Just two weeks after chief executive Jean-Marie Messier ousted Pierre Lescure, the president of France's <A HREF="http://www.canalplus.fr">Canal Plus</A> television company&mdash;an event that caused demonstrations in the streets of Paris and paroxysms of nationalistic fervor among France's 18 presidential candidates&mdash;a complicated stock deal got vastly more complicated, resulting in a $250 million payment due to A&M Records founders Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss.

At the start of his review of the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/570/">Balanced Audio Technology VK-D5 CD player</A>, Jonathan Scull observes, "<I>Man</I>, has Balanced Audio Technology come a long way in a short time." Scull goes in-depth with the VK-D5 to explain just what he's found.

Where Pogs and Pokemon once ruled, <A HREF="http://www.tigertoys.com/newhitclips/">HitClips</A&gt; have taken over. HitClips are hot. So hot, in fact, that <A HREF="http://www.hasbro.com">Hasbro Incorporated</A>'s Tiger Electronics division has sold more than 20 million of them at $3.99 each. That's $80 million gross on a single product, a figure that probably no high-end audio company has ever reached.

The <A HREF="http://www.riaa.com">Recording Industry Association of America</A> (RIAA) has requested increased federal funding for the ongoing struggle against the pirating of recorded music. On Tuesday, April 23, the organization's executives asked the US House of Representatives' Appropriations Committee for more money to pursue pirates. Such allocations come directly from tax revenues, according to reports from Washington.

Reader Robert Baum writes that he bought a new KA-7002 Kenwood amp in 1973, and though he's upgraded several times since then, "it's been living under our bed (yes, it's still alive!) for at least a dozen years.

<A HREF="http://www.naras.org">National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences</A> (NARAS) president C. Michael Greene has abruptly resigned in the wake of sexual harassment allegations by female executives at the nonprofit organization, which produces the annual Grammy Music Awards show.

Jonathan Scull says he likes "stories with happy endings." Will his time spent with the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/565/">Conrad-Johnson Premier 16LS preamplifier</A> leave a smile on his face or a frown? J-10 comments, "As always, after a period of time, I began tweaking until I got the sound <I>just so</I>, then whipped out the laptop and . . . " filed this report.