From the October issue, John Atkinson gets acquainted with the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/showarchives.cgi?942">Morel Octwin 5.2M loudspeaker</A>, noting, "Once you become accustomed to its admittedly weird looks, it is actually visually appealing and has a small footprint in the listening room." But there's something about the Morel's sound that causes JA to raise an eyebrow.

Music industry executives may have a special dread of this year's Halloween festivities.

Only a few short years ago, Napster quickly took root to show the world how Internet-based audio file-trading was where music distribution's future growth might run wild. But the record labels would have none of it and just as swiftly took a legal chainsaw to Napster's trunk, laying it waste and leaving plenty of room for Kazaa and other unsanctioned services to sprout like weeds.

Paul Bolin takes a spin with the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/938/">Vacuum Tube Logic TL-7.5 Reference line preamplifier</A>, observing, "For some reason, the light has never shone quite as brightly on VTL's front-end electronics, perhaps in part because it's been so long since the company attempted a headline-grabbing, all-out assault on the state of that art."

The last few weeks have been a roller-coaster ride for CD copy-restriction developer SunnComm. The company was riding high in early September when it was <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11734/">announced</A&gt; that BMG and Arista had chosen its MediaMax CD-3 Technology to restrict how discs are used.

<A HREF="http://www.sony.com/SEL">Sony Electronics</A> will soon institute some big changes in an effort to become more efficient.

Dating was murder, especially in the months just before I met my wife. I knew some nice women back then, many of whom were good-hearted and others of whom were beautiful. One was both, and talented, too: She gave me presents for no reason and wrote tender things in cards with pictures of sweet meadows or the sea: <I>My love goes on and on</I>, they said. But for whatever reason, I just couldn't love her back, and Oh! how the shit hit the fan the day I told her so. I meant it as a respectful act of honesty and forthrightness; she took it as a cowardly act of rejection, and responded in a manner that would forever remind me of Maggie bouncing the rolling pin off Jiggs's head while calling him an insect. That day, I learned two things: 1) women are unlearnable; and, 2) honesty, while an unassailably good thing in and of itself, makes a poor tool, mostly because it lacks a safety handle.

Dating was murder, especially in the months just before I met my wife. I knew some nice women back then, many of whom were good-hearted and others of whom were beautiful. One was both, and talented, too: She gave me presents for no reason and wrote tender things in cards with pictures of sweet meadows or the sea: <I>My love goes on and on</I>, they said. But for whatever reason, I just couldn't love her back, and Oh! how the shit hit the fan the day I told her so. I meant it as a respectful act of honesty and forthrightness; she took it as a cowardly act of rejection, and responded in a manner that would forever remind me of Maggie bouncing the rolling pin off Jiggs's head while calling him an insect. That day, I learned two things: 1) women are unlearnable; and, 2) honesty, while an unassailably good thing in and of itself, makes a poor tool, mostly because it lacks a safety handle.