LATEST ADDITIONS

At the recently concluded SAE-CEA Digital Car Conference in Detroit, representatives of the recording industry joined <A HREF="http://www.panasonic.com">Panasonic</A&gt; for a DVD-Audio love-fest hailing the format as the "in-car music delivery system of the future." Panasonic's automotive electronics division used the conference and exhibition to introduce and demonstrate its first mobile DVD-Audio systems for OEM distribution. The company also hosted seminars exploring how it imagines DVD-Audio will specifically apply to and benefit the automobile industry.

Those unhappy with today's over-the-air broadcasting choices will be glad to know that this is shaping up as a busy year for new radio formats. The commercialization of the IBOC AM and FM digital broadcasting system is about to be revealed at the same time that Sirius satellite radio announces that it will be accelerating its rollout schedule in an effort to compete with rival XM satellite radio.

Echoing the sentiments of their <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11282/">American counterparts</A>, German music industry executives are blaming the popularity of the CD burner for slumping music sales. "More music is probably being heard now than ever before," said German Recording Industry Association president Gerd Gebhardt, "but the music is not paid for, because copying has become so cheap and easy."

Andy Warhol's famous dictum&mdash;that eventually, everyone will enjoy 15 minutes of fame&mdash;could apply equally to Internet startups.

Despite our best efforts, things can still go awry with <I>Stereophile</I>'s "Recommended Components" listing, the most recent edition of which appears in the current, April 2002 issue. I reported a couple of errors <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11289/">a couple of weeks ago</A> and now, sadly, I have more corrections to offer.

In my <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//thefifthelement/493/">January "The Fifth Element" column</A>, I discussed the concept of value in the context of audio component manufacture. This month's "Letters" includes a response to that column from Austrian distributor Hans Hirner. In his letter, Herr Hirner writes about some of his Web-surfing non-customers: "If that weren't enough, they also call me or my dealers to tell them how proud they are, after having taken all from me that is possible in system matching and trial&mdash;and even denoising their systems&mdash;to have been able to find 'our' products cheaper out there."

What could be easier to review than a power amplifier? No features or functions aside from inputs, outputs, and a power switch. So when Jonathan Scull asked if I could help out by taking on the Rotel RB 1080, which another reviewer hadn't been able to get to, I accepted the assignment. Before I could click my heels and say "FedEx!" twice, Rotel's 200Wpc RB 1080 had appeared.