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Reader Gerald Neily is curious about the control issues our readers have. He would like to know if you use a remote with your audio system, and if so, how do you use it?

When we last heard from Englishman <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/990paravicini">Tim de Paravicini</A>, whose <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/404ear">EAR 890</A> amp I reviewed in <I>Stereophile</I>'s April 2004 issue, the veteran audio designer suggested that he could make a transistor amplifier equal in performance to any of his successful tube designs. Whatever else it may be, the new EAR 324 is my first chance to test that claim: a stereo phono preamplifier without a single tube in sight. It isn't TdP's first all-solid-state product: That would be the line-plus-phono EAR 312 preamplifier, introduced to no small fanfare a little over three years ago. For all intents and purposes, the 324 is a standalone version of the phono section of that $18,000 flagship: The designs are virtually identical&mdash;excepting, of course, their casework and power supplies.

Consider the plight of solid-state muscle amps. Often derided as brutes lacking sophistication or subtlety, particularly by the SET set (<I>ie</I>, fans of single-ended triodes), these powerhouses are taken for granted and often, like Rodney Dangerfield, they get no respect. And once upon a time, the stereotypes were true. Every veteran audiophile has at some time heard an immensely powerful transistor amp that had the soft sonic allure of a sheet of sandpaper, a lumbering oaf of a component with nothing whatsoever to recommend it save for a bulging set of mighty moose muscles.

The upbeat is the most magic moment in classical music making. Before the conductor brings down his baton for the downbeat, anything and everything are possible in the musical journey that is about to begin. And the upbeat to Mozart's sublime Clarinet Concerto that conductor Robert Bailey was about to give in London's Henry Wood Hall last November gave me an extra frisson&mdash;as producer of the recording sessions, I would have to pronounce instant judgment on everything I was about to hear.

Pay $350,000 for an amplifier?!?!! Michael Fremer takes a deep breath and plugs in the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/704wavac">Wavac SH-833 monoblock power amplifier</A> in order to hear for himself what he might get if he traded in his house. "When tmh's Jim Ricketts asked me if I wanted to review this eight-box assemblage," says MF, "the first thing I did was laugh at the ludicrousness of the situation. Then I said, 'Why the hell not?'"

For some time now, the truly hip Web-enabled person of stature has shared his or her thoughts with the world via a blog (from we<B>b</B> <B>log</B>); these days actors, musicians, and, yes, even politicians are getting into the act.

The digital audio genie was released two decades ago, before the music industry imagined any need to restrict how music files on a compact disc might be used. The last few years, however, have seen myriad attempts to redesign the digital audio bottle, and then shove the genie back in&mdash;with limited success.