A year without profits, a revolving door on the top floor, and potentially massive layoffs all spell trouble for <A HREF="http://www.bmg.com">BMG Entertainment</A>.

It may be true that baby-boomers yearn to relive their childhoods, but how many aging wanted-to-be rock stars and music lovers still like to play with dolls? <A HREF="http://www.spawn.com">McFarlane Toys</A>, which made its mark creating and marketing Spawn merchandise, is hoping quite a few.

Every month, we get dozens of press releases about new developments in the audio industry. Many of them, detailing minor changes in product design, company policy, or personnel, are less than newsworthy. A disturbing number are written in an odd variant of English&mdash;PR Speak&mdash;In Which Every Word Is Capitalized And Quotes Are Used "For Emphasis." Others clearly have been penned by folks not fully in command of the language: <I>Many are thus improved features of great desire and will invite happiness to include in next model.</I>

On Monday, July 2, 2001, Primedia announced that it has agreed to acquire emap usa from Emap plc. This transaction, which will create the second largest magazine company in the United States, is currently under a customary regulatory review. It is expected to close during the third quarter of the calendar year.

The jazz world mourns the passing of tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, who died late Saturday June 30 in San Francisco. He was 64.

Brian Damkroger finds that, while struggling unsuccessfully to fit the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/370/">Conrad-Johnson Premier 17LS line-stage preamplifier</A> into his preconceived notions of the company and its products, a paradigm shift in his thinking occurred. Damkroger explains that "it was only during a marathon session of listening and comparing the C-J to a couple of other preamps that the truth dawned on me . . . I went back and forth between the C-J and the other units several times over the course of the next week, and one evening it hit me." The truth awaits.

As I write these words, it is exactly 15 years to the day since I left the English magazine <I>Hi-Fi News</I> (then <I>Hi-Fi News & Record Review</I>) to <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/352/">take the editorial helm</A> of <I>Stereophile</I>. What has driven my editing of both magazines (and, Carol Baugh, p.10, I certainly do "edit" them) has been the view that the traditional model of a magazine&mdash;that it dispense and the readers receive wisdom&mdash;is fundamentally wrong. Instead, I strongly believe that a magazine's editors, writers, and readers are involved in an ongoing dialog about their shared enthusiasms. <I>Stereophile</I>'s involvement in Shows stems from this belief, and it is in this light that its "Letters" column should be regarded as the heart of each issue.

As I write these words, it is exactly 15 years to the day since I left the English magazine <I>Hi-Fi News</I> (then <I>Hi-Fi News & Record Review</I>) to <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/352/">take the editorial helm</A> of <I>Stereophile</I>. What has driven my editing of both magazines (and, Carol Baugh, p.10, I certainly do "edit" them) has been the view that the traditional model of a magazine&mdash;that it dispense and the readers receive wisdom&mdash;is fundamentally wrong. Instead, I strongly believe that a magazine's editors, writers, and readers are involved in an ongoing dialog about their shared enthusiasms. <I>Stereophile</I>'s involvement in Shows stems from this belief, and it is in this light that its "Letters" column should be regarded as the heart of each issue.

Few topics will get audiophiles into an argument more readily than a discussion of the relative merits of tubed and solid-state equipment. A <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/showvote.cgi?189">poll</A&gt; on the <I>Stereophile</I> website showed 53% of respondents choosing solid-state as their preferred amplifier design, while 38% indicated a preference for tubes&mdash;the remainder choosing "other," which presumably means digital amplifiers. (There has been no corresponding survey regarding preamplifier designs.) Opinions tend toward the dogmatic, with one respondent declaring "solid-state is more accurate," another stating unequivocally that "tubes sound closer to the real thing."