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Lars is dead.

They have become the companies music fans around the world love to hate. But to their stockholders, the businesses developing CD-restriction technologies are a promising new technology niche for investing. <A HREF="http://www.sunncomm.com">SunnComm</A&gt; is one of these new companies dedicated to finding means to restrict the ways consumers can use compact discs, and last week they used their annual stockholder meeting as an opportunity to announce their latest copy-protection product.

Earlier this year, Kalman Rubinson spent some time with the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/608/">Rotel RB 1080 power amplifier</A>. "What could be easier to review than a power amplifier? No features or functions aside from inputs, outputs, and a power switch," remarks KR. But as Rubinson finds, it's the details that count.

"You're a toy junkie!" laughed Trish, my fianc&#233;e. "Your life is a search for bigger and better toys!"

We were surprised at the results from last week's vote to see that so many readers have separate two-channel systems. So we're curious: where have you set up <I>your</I> main music system?

Michael Fremer heard that the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/605/">Alesis MasterLink ML-9600 Hard Disk/CD-R Recorder</A> "can sound better than all but the absolute top-drawer analog," and, of course, had to investigate. Mikey 'splains why audiophiles should take note of a machine generally used as a mastering tool by the recording industry.

Some Webcasters were given a stay of execution in late June, when the Librarian of Congress announced that they would be required to pay royalties at half the rate proposed by an arbitration panel last winter.