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John Atkinson and Arnis Balgalvis audition the Avalon">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/703/">Avalon Eclipse loudspeaker, whose quasi-anechoic TDS response prompted JA to exclaim, "Boy, that's flat!" But is flat where it's at? AB thought so: "The sound I heard was truly outstanding."

The latest figures for the music industry remain grim: Online sales of recorded music have dropped 20% through the first half of 2002 compared with the same period last year, losing ground faster than the overall US music market, which lost 7% during the same period, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). And the trend is accelerating. The latest numbers show online sales down 25% in the third quarter over last year.

The Recording">http://www.riaa.com">Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has gone on record opposing the Artistic">http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A11926">Artistic Freedom Act, introduced for consideration by the New York State Assembly on October 28 by Speaker Sheldon Silver. The bill would free artists from long-term contracts—now sometimes as long as 25 years—and would give them "free agency" status.

Tom Dowd, a recording engineer and producer who created some of the greatest pop, jazz, and rock recordings of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, and who ushered in the era of multi-track tape recording and stereo playback, died Sunday, October 27 of emphysema at an assisted living center in Aventura, Florida, near Miami. He was 77.

One would think the last thing the music industry needs right now is to further alienate its customers who are still buying discs. But that is just what the record labels are doing by secretly experimenting with technology that restricts how discs are used, says a new report.

Brian Damkroger has a wonderful moment or two as he auditions the VAC">http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/697/">VAC Renaissance Signature Mk.II preamplifier. As BD explains, the right musical situation can trigger those long-lost memories . . . .

During the week of October 14, Thiel">http://www.thielaudio.com">Thiel Audio Products president Kathy Gornik completed an unprecedented triple play.