On May 10, members of several pro audio Internet bulletin boards read the following post from Gary Margolis: "It is with great sadness that I inform you that John Eargle, one of the finest audio engineers and teachers it's been my privilege to know, has passed away.

On May 16, Amazon.com announced that it would launch an online digital music store "later this year" offering "millions of songs in the DRM-free MP3 format from more than 12,000 record labels." EMI, which recently announced that it would partner with the iTunes Media Store to release premium DRM-free MP3 downloads there, "is the latest addition to the store." Amazon claims that every song and album in the Amazon.com digital music store will be available exclusively as unfettered MP3 files.

When audiophiles speak of the "Golden Age" of audio components, they almost always are talking about amplifiers and preamplifiers, not loudspeakers. While a very few speaker models have stood the test of time&mdash;among them the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/361">BBC LS3/5a</A>, the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/914">Vandersteen 2</A>, the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/artdudleylistening/706listening">original Quad electrostatic</A> and the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/416">Quad ESL-63</A>, some of the Magnepans, and the Klipschorn&mdash;almost no one would disagree that, taken en masse, the speakers of today outperform not just those of the 1960s and 1970s but even those of the 1980s and 1990s. The advent of low-cost, computerized test equipment, high-quality, inexpensive measuring microphones, and persuasive research into what measured parameters matter most to listeners who are listening for a neutral-sounding, uncolored loudspeaker (footnote 1), has led to an almost across-the-board improvement in speaker sound quality (footnote 2).

When audiophiles speak of the "Golden Age" of audio components, they almost always are talking about amplifiers and preamplifiers, not loudspeakers. While a very few speaker models have stood the test of time&mdash;among them the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/361">BBC LS3/5a</A>, the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/914">Vandersteen 2</A>, the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/artdudleylistening/706listening">original Quad electrostatic</A> and the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/416">Quad ESL-63</A>, some of the Magnepans, and the Klipschorn&mdash;almost no one would disagree that, taken en masse, the speakers of today outperform not just those of the 1960s and 1970s but even those of the 1980s and 1990s. The advent of low-cost, computerized test equipment, high-quality, inexpensive measuring microphones, and persuasive research into what measured parameters matter most to listeners who are listening for a neutral-sounding, uncolored loudspeaker (footnote 1), has led to an almost across-the-board improvement in speaker sound quality (footnote 2).