Back in September of 1986, the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/550/">KEF R107 loudspeaker</A> represented the flagship of KEF's much admired Reference Series. Dick Olsher and a variety of other <I>Stereophile</I> scribes profile this important audio achievement over the course of five years, wrapping up with Tom Norton's 1995 review of the R107/2 "Raymond Cooke Signature Edition."

High-end audio and home-theater enthusiasts attending <A HREF="http://www.homeentertainment-expo.com">Home Entertainment 2002</A>, The Hi-Fi and Home Theater Event in New York City on May 31&ndash;June 2, 2002, will have an opportunity to participate in a series of interactive seminars and panel discussions on the latest advances in technology&mdash;all included with the price of admission.

In a never-ending quest to control what it believes is an epidemic of piracy, the music industry in recent years has gone after Internet file-sharing startups, fly-by-night CD duplicators, foreign pirates operating on an industrial scale, college kids with too much time on their hands, and street-corner vendors hawking badly-duped cassettes. At times the anti-piracy campaign has reached the fervor of a witch hunt, with blame laid on the innocent as well as the guilty.

Analog audio electronics are approaching "maturity," a state eventually achieved by most technologies, in which almost all the great discoveries have been made and progress becomes a process of increasingly arcane refinements. Digital audio is in no such danger, as evidenced by three new product announcements made the first week of April.

<A HREF="http://www.madrigal.com">Madrigal</A>'s Proceed line of high-end audio products will be phased out some time later this year, according to an April 3 press release.

We were saddened to learn of the death of inventor and audio engineer David Blackmer. The founder of dbx and <A HREF="http://www.earthwks.com">Earthworks Audio Products, Inc.</A> died at his home in Wilton, NH on March 21. He was 75.

Despite our best efforts, things can still go awry with <I>Stereophile</I>'s "Recommended Components" listing, the most recent edition of which appears in the current, April 2002 issue. I reported a couple of errors <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11289/">a couple of weeks ago</A> and now, sadly, I have more corrections to offer.

Andy Warhol's famous dictum&mdash;that eventually, everyone will enjoy 15 minutes of fame&mdash;could apply equally to Internet startups.

Back in November of 2000, Kalman Rubinson took on the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/545/">McCormack DNA-225 power amplifier</A>, following the rebirth of the company that he had so admired. "McCormack is still the guiding spirit behind these new models, which incorporate aspects of the original designs, much of the SMc upgrades, and some new wrinkles. I quickly put in my bid for a test sample of the DNA-225." His analysis awaits.