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In his review of the Music">http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/560/">Music Reference RM-200 power amplifier, Michael Fremer claims, "Reviewing a vacuum-tube power amplifier is like having your pants pulled down in front of a large crowd of people." MF explains why he reviewed the RM-200 despite the inevitable public humiliation.

Like the companies in most high-tech industries, audio businesses are a volatile lot, with startups, mergers, acquisitions—and the occasional bankruptcy or flame-out—not uncommon. In that ongoing tradition, at the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Ultralink">http://www.ultralinkcables.com">Ultralink Products announced on January 7 its intention to purchase the assets of cable manufacturer XLO">http://www.xloelectric.com">XLO Electric.

XM">http://www.xmradio.com">XM Radio held a press conference in New York City Thursday, April 18. The event was heralded with great secrecy—attendees were enticed with promises of "major news," but no one leaked details beforehand, and the press arrived expecting something juicy indeed.

What's a home-entertainment show without an assortment of state-of-the-art audio demonstrations? EgglestonWorkshttp://www.egglestonworks.com">EgglestonWorks; has announced that its next generation Andra II speaker will be featured as part of what it calls an "unprecedented" demonstration of multichannel Super Audio CD (SACD) to be conducted during the upcoming Home">http://www.homeentertainment-expo.com">Home Entertainment 2002 Show May 30 through June 2 at the New York Hilton.

American media companies and electronics manufacturers may be adversaries in the conflict over digital copy protection, but their French counterparts have decided to make love, not war.

"No doubt about it—Linn's top-of-the-line Komri">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/555/">Komri loudspeaker is a queer-lookin' duck," says Jonathan Scull as he set up a pair in his listening lair. The claimed frequency response for the Komri extends out to 40kHz. "Why even bother going out that high, where even the most beautiful of women cannot hear?" J-10 explains why.

As normally conceived, loudspeakers use electrodynamic forces to control the movements of their diaphragms, which in turn move air. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. has come up with an interesting twist on this principle, one in which air pressure itself ("aerodynamic-drive technology") is used to control the diaphragm. The result is a transparent panel speaker called the "Sound Window," announced by the Japanese industrial giant March 27.