I still have fond memories of my first Krell amplifier, a KSA-50. Back in those days (date purposely omitted), my principal source of audio equipment reviews, aside from <I>Stereophile</I> and <I>The Absolute Sound</I>, was <I>Hi-Fi News & Record Review</I>, which I read voraciously from cover to cover every month. One fateful day while sitting by our community swimming pool, I happened upon an enlightening review of the KSA-50 written by none other than our own John Atkinson, editor of <I>HFN/RR</I> <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/352">at the time</A>. His words describing "the steamroller-like inevitability of the bass with this amplifier" haunted me for weeks, until I got up the nerve to audition, and ultimately purchase, my first Krell product.

On August 28, Jon Iverson forwarded an <A HREF="http://www.comcast.net/includes/article/print.jsp?fn=/data/news/html//2… article</A> about Christian Reiter, who claims to have diagnosed Beethoven's lengthy decline and eventual death as lead poisoning caused by a salve laced with lead administered by the composer's doctor.

The Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) Expo 2007 officially opens its exhibition halls Thursday September 6, and <I>Stereophile</I>'s Kal Rubinson and Wes Phillips will be there to report the highs, the lows, the in-betweens&mdash;everything, in fact, except the bunions.

On August 31, Apple <A HREF="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/08/31itunes.html">announced</A&gt; that the iTunes store would stop selling NBC television episodes for the upcoming season. The press release stated: "The move follows NBC's decision to not renew its agreement with iTunes after Apple declined to pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99. ABC, CBS, Fox and The CW, along with more than 50 cable networks, are signed up to sell TV shows from their upcoming season on iTunes at $1.99 per episode."