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Conrad-Johnson has been on a roll with their Anniversary Reference Triode preamplifier, aka the ART, which garnered the Stereophile Product of the Year award in 1998. (See previous article.) According to Lew Johnson, "We realized that Conrad-Johnson is coming up on its 20th anniversary, so we thought we might produce something special to celebrate. This is a version of the preamplifier we use in our listening room at the factory---we never even thought about producing it because it would be god-awful expensive. But it really is our last thought on what a preamp should be, so we figured we'd produce a limited edition, say 250 total, as a way of commemorating our 20 years in the business."

The results impressed Wes Phillips both visually and sonically. You can read his in-depth assessment, as well as John Atkinson's measurements, in the latest addition to our online archives: the Conrad-Johnson ART preamplifier.

Bandwidth is still king: also just added to the Archives is Lawrence Ullman's February 1999 look at the General Instruments 4DTV Satellite receiver, which can still hold its place even with competition from the little dishes.