LATEST ADDITIONS

In his essay "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/208/">Let's Face the Music and Dance</A>," John Marks, founder of John Marks Records, asks: "Does high-end audio have a future?" Of course it does, he says. But will it be one worth the price? Marks writes, "for most of its potential consumers, high-end audio is now a matter of sharply diminishing economic returns. A large incremental expenditure guarantees only a relatively modest, even marginal improvement in sound quality." How to forge ahead anyway? Marks offers his advice to our "dysfunctional" audio family.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.capitolrecords.com/">Capitol Records</A> announced that it will release expanded DVD and VHS editions of <I>Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys Story</I>. The documentary, produced by Stephanie Bennett and directed by Alan Boyd, made its US television debut on VH1 in 1998. A soundtrack CD of <I>Endless Harmony</I>, originally released to coincide with the VH1 airing, is also available.

Should Internet sales be subject to taxation? California's US Senator Diane Feinstein doesn't think so. Neither do most of her constituents in Silicon Valley, who are riding an unprecedented wave of prosperity as the growth of Internet commerce continues. Many folks outside Silicon Valley, especially traditional retailers, see no reason why e-commerce should be exempt from sales taxes.

Three-dimensional modeling, 4-pi anechoic chambers, and laser inteferometry were but a few of the industrial marvels revealed in early March to a group of <I>Stereophile</I> and <I>Stereophile Guide to Home Theater</I> scribes. The group convened Tuesday, March 7, at Revel headquarters in the massive <A HREF="http://www.harman.com/">Harman International</A> complex in Northridge, California, for an inside view of the company's research, development, and manufacturing operations, organized and led by <A HREF="http://www.madrigal.com/">Madrigal</A&gt; president Mark Glazier. Madrigal is Harman's Middletown, Connecticut-based high-end operation, with the Proceed, Mark Levinson, and Revel lines under its jurisdiction.

Does high-end audio have a future? High-end audio most definitely does have a future. So do the Latin mass, chess, leather-bound books, and wooden boats. But the future will not be like the past, and I think we must face the fact that high-end audio's future, both for hardware and software, will be as a minority enthusiasm. We should plan and act accordingly.

Because they now realize that downloading music from the Internet is here to stay, it would seem the major record companies would love to see a world in which Web consumers no longer own a copy of a song or album, but simply pay each time they listen to it.

It happens to most of us. You're tooling down the road, listening to the radio, and you hear some music that captures your interest. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to easily find out who the artist is and what label they record for without waiting for the announcer, so you can head to your favorite music outlet and buy the disc? But how about pushing a button and ordering the item right there on the spot&mdash;from the driver's seat?