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<IMG SRC="/images/newsart/011904schram.jpg" WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=266 HSPACE=6 VSPACE=4 BORDER=0 ALIGN=RIGHT>Parasound wins design award: Only a week after receiving a <I>Stereophile</I> 2003 "Product of the Year" award at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas for its excellent Halo JC-1 monoblock power amplifier&mdash;Richard Schram is shown accepting the award (right)&mdash;Parasound Products won a 2003 "Good Design Award" from the <A HREF="http://www.chi-athenaeum.org">Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design</A>. The company's Halo C1 preamp/surround sound processor emerged on top in the museum's annual design competition, "one of the oldest and most important such events in the world," according to a January 16 announcement from Parasound. The C1 and other winners will be on exhibit in the museum from April 3&ndash;June 13, 2004. Opening day of the exhibit will be populated with dignitaries, design professionals, and representatives of the press.

Manufacturers sometimes suspect that they have been intentionally slighted if they don't get mentioned in a <I>Stereophile</I> show report. The truth is that the overwhelming enormity of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) prevents even the most aggressive journalists from seeing everything. (<I>SGHT</I> editor Tom Norton may be the sole exception.)

Like it or not, audiophiles may find that it will be the computer industry, not the traditional consumer electronics manufacturers, that creates a successful platform for high resolution audio. As we <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/010904ces/">reported last week</A> from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Microsoft's latest Windows Media Audio (WMA) codec contains provisions for up to eight channels of 96kHz/24-bit lossy or lossless PCM audio&mdash;and Apple OSX fans have had an operating system that supports 96/24 for some time.

From the January 2004 issue, Robert J. Reina surveys the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/104epos">Epos ELS-3 loudspeaker</A>, reporting at the outset, "I have not been this excited about an entry-level speaker in years." BJR explains, "In three areas, it exceeded in performance what I've heard from its competition."

We are saddened to report the death of Decca recording engineer Kenneth E. Wilkinson on January 13 at the age of 92, in Norfolk, England. The news was reported by LP historian Michael Gray of <I>The Absolute Sound</I> on the Internet newsgroup rec.audio.high-end.

I was introduced to Legacy Audio at the CEDIA Expo in September 2002, and I'll long remember it. A pair of Legacy's huge new Helix loudspeakers anchored the company's silent display, and I was irresistibly drawn to them. Sales manager Bob Howard introduced himself, and, after a few minutes of chatting, introduced me to Bill Dudleston, Legacy's founder and chief designer. Within two minutes, Dudleston had told me "I don't design speakers for hi-fi people. I design speakers for people who love music."

John Atkinson's track-by-track written evaluation in the July 2003 issue of his new <A HREF="https://secure.stereophile.com/stereophile/recordings.shtml"><I>Editor's Choice: Sampler & Test CD</I></A> (Stereophile STPH016-2) drew me like a magnet. Here was a reviewer-editor putting into words his musical perceptions, gathered while he served as the engineer for the various recordings sampled on this compilation. JA's dual roles of writer and engineer merge complementary perspectives, yielding what should be useful descriptions of the sonic values of some of my favorite reference CDs. As I was about to start my review of Piega's new hybrid loudspeaker when I read this article, it was only natural to test whether this Swiss full-range speaker could deliver "what you should hear."