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"No company has done more to vigorously fly the audio tricolor as has Focal-JMlab," declares Paul Bolin, who visits the Focal factory and then reviews the Focal-JMlab">http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/604focal">Focal-JMlab Nova Utopia Be loudspeaker. PB adds, "One thing about the Utopia line has not changed: the exquisite level of finish." But what about the sound?

Consumers prefer to get a good deal, and dealers like to maintain a healthy profit margin. Somewhere in the relationship is a perfect balance, where buyers get a legitimate product for the best price while dealers make enough money to ensure that the customer can be supported properly.

The Home Entertainment 2004 East Show, held in New York City, May 20–23, at the New York Hilton & Towers, gave Show attendees a memorable weekend filled with live music, educational seminars, a special movie night, and a grand concert—all included with the price of admission to the Show.

From the June 1999 issue, Jonathan Scull surveys the Pass">http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/699pass">Pass Labs X1000 monoblock power amplifier. JS notes, "Pass Laboratories' X amplifier series represents the efforts of designer Nelson Pass to prove that simple linear amplifier topologies can be scaled to provide high-quality audio performance at very high power levels."

As a result of the RIAA's aggressive attempts at legislation and lawsuits, it is widely understood that government control is an integral component of the music industry's plans to limit the ways in which copyrighted music can be used. But how far will the industry go to control the technology used to play back your favorite tune?

Clear Channel Communications, Inc. has settled the first of what could be a long string of lawsuits over its purportedly monopolistic marketing tactics.

RIAA lawsuits continue: Each month the recording industry launches a few hundred more lawsuits against suspected file-swappers, with such tedious regularity that we could simply re-run the previous month's news with a new figure inserted. This time around, the Recording Industry Association of America announced May 24 that it had filed suit against 493 more people believed to have illegally shared music over the Internet. Known only by their screen names and IP addresses, the unnamed defendants are subscribers with Internet service providers in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Texas. Unlike recent suits, none of the current crop involves college students or university networks. To date approximately 3000 people have been sued by the music industry; 486 have settled, paying damages that averaged $3000 each.