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I can see by your smile, my friend / You're from the other side . . .

Roll your mouse over the skulls to see the corresponding animals.

The year is drawing to a close and once again we've seen many great audio products released. What is your choice for best new audio product of the year 2005?

Back in the 1970s, I used to hang out at an audio store on Northern Boulevard's Miracle Mile. After business hours&mdash;and sometimes during them&mdash;a group of us audiophiles would put every new product through the wringer. One of the most anticipated was the original B&W 801, which appeared in 1979. The 801 was simply unflappable. Fed enough power, a pair of them played louder and cleaner than anything we had ever heard, including the mammoth, multimodule Fultons that were the pride of that shop. But&mdash;and this was a big <I>but</I>&mdash;the 801 lacked immediacy and engagement, and I soon fell back to preferring an earlier B&W model, the DM6, which seemed more coherent and to offer the music out to the listener. The 801 was more objective and detached, but boy, could it knock you over with the right source material.

I don't know how this works &#151; I'm guessing it's just some sort of the usual, run-of-the-mill collective (un)conscious pinging internet magic &#151; but if you take a look at the bottom of any one of the pages on the <i>Stereophile</i> website, you'll find a list of "Sponsored Links," seemingly appropriate to the page itself.

Bagheera: "Okay Huck, you strum and I'll fret."