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Citing the desire to take advantage of the power of sharing audio files over the Internet, one of the larger independent record labels, <A HREF="http://www.tvtrecords.com/">TVT Records</A>, announced last week that it has withdrawn its copyright claims against the file-sharing company <A HREF="http://www.napster.com/">Napster</A&gt;. TVT said that the basis for its decision to end the lawsuit and provide its support to Napster is "the new service Napster is evolving under the strategic alliance it recently announced with Bertelsmann AG." TVT points out that, since Bertelsmann is still technically a party to litigation with Napster, it becomes the first record label to fully settle with the beleagured Web company.

Musical arguments in favor of separate components are compelling and well-documented. But there's also something musical to be said about reducing the number of power sources, keeping signal paths short and direct, and hard-wiring connections between components rather than employing multiple sets of interconnects. So while a designer must inevitably confront certain tradeoffs, the explosive growth and popularity of single-box products in the past few years contradicts the received wisdom passed down by some of the more sniffy audiophiles: that such unduly proletarian products are terminally compromised in terms of absolute levels of music reproduction.

At the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas in January 1999, Mark Schifter, erstwhile president of Audio Alchemy, was handing out a press release announcing what seemed like a groundbreaking product from his new company, Perpetual Technologies. The product was the P-1A, a digital-to-digital processor that would do resolution enhancement, loudspeaker correction (amplitude and phase), and room correction—all for less than $1k. It sounded too good to be true.

Have you ever had a pal over to listen to your system, only to find under the scrutiny of the audition that you hear your system differently than when you were alone?

We always keep an ear out for new and interesting audio developments each time we attend the annual CES show in Las Vegas. This year, one company that garnered repeated buzz around the Alexis Park, and even at the main convention center was Australia's <A HREF="http://www.halcro.com">Halcro</A&gt;. As we <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10940/">reported</A&gt; from the show, Halcro builds gorgeous-looking power amplifers shaped in the form of an "H" that range in price from $10,000 for its dm 33 three-channel amplifer up to $30,000 for a pair of the dm 68 225W monoblocks.

Analog and digital audio technologies should complement rather than oppose each other. That's <A HREF="http://www.rotel.com/"&gt; Rotel</A>'s philosophy with its new RDV-1080 DVD-Audio player. Combining the best of Rotel's expertise in both realms, the RDV-1080 offers "stunning audio quality," according to Rotel general manager Michael Bartlett. "The RDV-1080 is Rotel's answer to those who have asked for a DVD-A player that focuses our Balanced Design engineering approach on the unique challenges of this exciting new format," Bartlett said. "Even though it handles the most advanced format today, DVD-A, the RDV-1080 is nonetheless a direct descendant of our world-class CD players." Bartlett says his company is "using everything we've learned to identify and solve problems unique to digital technologies."

On January 19, <A HREF="http://www.bmgentertainment.com/">Bertelsmann Music Group Entertainment</A> announced changes in senior management that include a new chief financial officer and new directors for its American and European divisions. A major division of the German media conglomerate <A HREF="http://www.bertelsmann.de/">Bertelsmann AG</A>, BMG suffered the loss of music industry veteran <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10930/">Rudi Gassner</A> shortly before Christmas. Gassner, who had been slated to become CEO of BMG, died of a heart attack while vacationing in Bavaria.