Dave Barry posted this one today and it's just too fabulous not to share. Enjoy—and then spend the rest of the day listening to music with your families.

When I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tubepoweramps/152">reviewed</A&gt; VTL's MB-750 monoblock amplifier in the December 1997 <I>Stereophile</I> (Vol.20 No.12), it was a transitional time for the company. <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/153">Luke Manley</A> had recently taken it over, and he and his wife and partner, Bea Lam, were aggressively retooling. They introduced new business systems, including rigorous inventory and quality control; rebuilt VTL's dealer network around top-rank dealers; and systematically upgraded the products themselves to improve their consistency, reliability, manufacturability, and performance. VTL's goal, Luke explained to me at the time, was to build amplifiers that competed with the very best, and to "make the tubes invisible to the customer."

When I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tubepoweramps/152">reviewed</A&gt; VTL's MB-750 monoblock amplifier in the December 1997 <I>Stereophile</I> (Vol.20 No.12), it was a transitional time for the company. <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/153">Luke Manley</A> had recently taken it over, and he and his wife and partner, Bea Lam, were aggressively retooling. They introduced new business systems, including rigorous inventory and quality control; rebuilt VTL's dealer network around top-rank dealers; and systematically upgraded the products themselves to improve their consistency, reliability, manufacturability, and performance. VTL's goal, Luke explained to me at the time, was to build amplifiers that competed with the very best, and to "make the tubes invisible to the customer."

When I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tubepoweramps/152">reviewed</A&gt; VTL's MB-750 monoblock amplifier in the December 1997 <I>Stereophile</I> (Vol.20 No.12), it was a transitional time for the company. <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/153">Luke Manley</A> had recently taken it over, and he and his wife and partner, Bea Lam, were aggressively retooling. They introduced new business systems, including rigorous inventory and quality control; rebuilt VTL's dealer network around top-rank dealers; and systematically upgraded the products themselves to improve their consistency, reliability, manufacturability, and performance. VTL's goal, Luke explained to me at the time, was to build amplifiers that competed with the very best, and to "make the tubes invisible to the customer."

When I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tubepoweramps/152">reviewed</A&gt; VTL's MB-750 monoblock amplifier in the December 1997 <I>Stereophile</I> (Vol.20 No.12), it was a transitional time for the company. <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/153">Luke Manley</A> had recently taken it over, and he and his wife and partner, Bea Lam, were aggressively retooling. They introduced new business systems, including rigorous inventory and quality control; rebuilt VTL's dealer network around top-rank dealers; and systematically upgraded the products themselves to improve their consistency, reliability, manufacturability, and performance. VTL's goal, Luke explained to me at the time, was to build amplifiers that competed with the very best, and to "make the tubes invisible to the customer."

When I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tubepoweramps/152">reviewed</A&gt; VTL's MB-750 monoblock amplifier in the December 1997 <I>Stereophile</I> (Vol.20 No.12), it was a transitional time for the company. <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/153">Luke Manley</A> had recently taken it over, and he and his wife and partner, Bea Lam, were aggressively retooling. They introduced new business systems, including rigorous inventory and quality control; rebuilt VTL's dealer network around top-rank dealers; and systematically upgraded the products themselves to improve their consistency, reliability, manufacturability, and performance. VTL's goal, Luke explained to me at the time, was to build amplifiers that competed with the very best, and to "make the tubes invisible to the customer."

My opinions keep changing&mdash;more evidence of life before death, I suppose&mdash;including my thoughts on audio-system hierarchies. I used to think that preamps were among the most sonically influential components, certainly more so than power amplifiers. I'm not so sure anymore (footnote 1).