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On May 23, the Juilliard">http://www.juilliard.edu">Juilliard School of Music announced the selection of 18 instrumentalists who will form the core of the newly-created Juilliard Jazz Orchestra. As orchestra members, the musicians will benefit from tuition-free study at the school's recently established Juilliard Institute for Jazz. The creation of the institute—a collaboration of the Juilliard School and the "Jazz at Lincoln Center" program—is an indication that the prestigious institution is further acknowledging the importance of jazz, an indigenous American genre that many critics have called "the classical music of the 20th century."

Julian Hirsch, the man who personified the state of audio criticism for nearly half a century, died on November 24 after a long illness.

Zesto's Téssara tube phono preamplifier takes pride of place on the July Stereophile's cover, to accompany Mikey Fremer's review inside. Add to that Jason Victor Serinus on the expensive Audionet Max monoblocks from Germany, John Atkinson on an affordable DAC from Arcam, Larry Greenhill on the awesome No.536 monoblock from the revitalized Mark Levinson company, Art Dudley on the Lamm L.21 preamplifier and the Serbian Soulines Kubrick DCX turntable, and Herb Reichert on turntables from Analogueworks and Palmer, and you'll see why we think this issue is rad! (JA's daughter says "Don't say that, Daddy.")

Okay, we had a Rodgers & Hammerstein moment, but it was John Atkinson's review of KEF's bad-ass, made-in-England Blade Two loudspeaker, featured on the June 2015 issue's cover, that got us excited. And Art Dudley was also excited by the sound of another English speaker in this issue, the BBC-heritaged Super HL5plus from Harbeth. But it is AD's advice on how to audition cables that might generate the most excitement...

The Recording">http://www.riaa.com/">Recording Industry Association of America's lawsuit against Napsterhttp://www.napster.com/">Napster; may be an attack on one of its best friends, if results of a recent study by research organization Jupiter">http://www.jupiter.com/">Jupiter Communications can be believed.

This last year has seen several companies proclaim the launch of the "world's first digital loudspeaker." The term brings to mind some exotic new approach that is neither cone nor ribbon nor electrostat---something as different from all of those as, say, a CD is from a vinyl record or cassette tape.

As reported last">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11171/">last week, the US Justice Department has launched an anti-trust investigation of the music industry's strategy for online distribution. The probe intensified during the fourth week of October, with investigators presenting at least 10 "civil investigation demands" (CIDs) to participants in the music industry's nascent Internet ventures, MusicNethttp://www.musicnet.com">MusicNet; and pressplayhttp://www.pressplay.com">pressplay;.