Must We Test? Yes, We Must!   With respect to Mr. Riggs who, all
things aside, is still a man who apparently believes that
magazines should contain leaders and is therefore a cut above
the run-of-the-mill editor, this last statement is ridiculous.
Ridiculous. I defy anyone to look at a comprehensive set of CD
player or amplifier specifications and correctly predict its
sound quality (footnote 1). I was reminded of this editorial,
however, when I attended a press conference hosted by NAD at the
1989 SCES. (A full report from the Stereophile commando squad
appears in this issue.)  If there is one fundamental amplifier
specification that ought to give an unambiguous correlation with
what is heard, it is its power rating. An amplifier rated at
100W should, naturally, go louder (by 3dB, for all you techno-
buffs) than one capable of pumping 50W into the same load. Yet
at CES, NAD put on a convincing demonstration that their 50W
FTC-rated 7100 receiver would swing more clipping-free volts
into a typical load (repres