LATEST ADDITIONS

The Home Entertainment 2004 Show (HE2004) is coming to NYC May 20–23, 2004 at the Hilton New York Hotel & Towers. HE2004 is open to the public—consumers will not only have the opportunity to see, hear, and demo the finest high-performance products consumer electronics has to offer, they can also attend a dozen free educational seminars on a variety of topics and enjoy live music daily from jazz and blues artists during relaxing breaks for lunch. The educational seminars and music luncheons will be offered all three days of the Show. Seminars will be moderated by some of the consumer electronics industry's most respected editors, manufacturers, and custom-installation professionals.

Paul Bolin revisits planet Halcro to review the company's <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/404halcro">dm10 preamplifier</A>. As PB notes, "After designing an amplifier that turned much of the audio world on its head, Halcro's head honcho, Bruce Candy, turned his attention to developing a preamplifier to match what he'd already wrought."

"Clean Slate" ends: As of early April, the US music industry no longer offers amnesty to confessed downloaders. Begun in September by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the "Clean Slate" program's intent was to discourage music fans from continuing to gather freebies online by promising exemption from copyright infringement lawsuits if they signed statements that they had removed shared music files from their computers. More than 1100 music fans signed, but Eric Parke of Novato, CA sought an injunction against the program on the grounds that it was a "fraudulent business practice." The RIAA responded by halting the amnesty effort and asked the judge in the case to dismiss Parke's lawsuit. Trade group officials promised to uphold their part of the bargain for those who signed.

If you're a retailer harboring visions of including Klipsch Audio Technologies' products among the offerings in a deep-discount website, forget it. Likewise, reconsider if you've been tempted to buy Klipsch products at unbelievable prices from such a site. And if you're a Klipsch dealer with some overstock, don't take the bait if someone with a website offers you cash for a bulk deal, don't even think about it&mdash;because Klipsch is one company that takes the gray market seriously.

Pundits claim that home theater has taken over the consumer electronics market. We're curious to see what effect it has had on our readers. How would you describe yourself?

<I>The Pennsylvania Gazette</I> documented an early connection between music and an American named Winey when, in 1759, it listed for sale as part of an estate "a middle sized organ, having eight stops." Interested parties were directed to one Jacob Winey, a Philadelphia merchant.

Most of us have at least some taste for gear that <I>jumps out</I>&mdash;for audio components whose sonic and musical distinctions are easy to hear from the start. In audio, unlike in the art of music itself, there's nothing wrong with being obvious.