That's right, your government at work....

It is not just us. Have you ever wondered why current amplifiers made in Europe cannot take banana plugs straight in (only in sideways through the wire hole)?? Some bureaucrats in the EU did not think the binding posts were safe, so they ordered them changed.

Ask any manufacturer about CE guidelines (required) for export sales. Thank God we have our governments looking out for us!

Protecting us while we sleep, you bet! I was told that CE regulations regarding protection vs. rfi & heat dissipation are mind-boggling. Maybe that explains in part the vertiginous prices of upmarket pre's & class A amps sold in Europe?

I read through page 4. I may not get the tone here, sarcasm or serious or... I guess its not a bad idea I'm not too opinionated on it; I was even a little curious how $200 receivers these days were claiming 2 * 100 watts or 5 * 100 watts, when the ones 5-10 years ago where usually less than 100 * 2 for stereo only. I guess this situation is similar to way back when: 40 watt receivers were being rated much much higher than their "real" power, since some 40 watt amps can deliver something like 800 watts peak into a very specific load at X freq. for X duration at X distortion. So FTC stepped in (so this isn't new, I don't think) and standardized some of the amplifier measurments. I do wonder if the Dennis Murphy on page one is the same Dennis Murphy who designs speakers as a hobby and does well in the amateur divisions. He did say on his own site he was an economist by formal training and that would maybe partly explain why he's involved in this (the Dennis Murphy on page 1 is also an economist), cross interests-an economist with no interest in audio would probably never bat an eye at the audio sector.