LATEST ADDITIONS

Among the ingredients needed for a successful online consumer-electronics business, having well-known, sought-after brands may be the most important. Just in time for the holiday season, <A HREF="http://www.hifi.com">Hifi.com</A&gt; announced last week that it has become one of a "select group" authorized to sell Sony Electronics products over the Internet. This announcement comes on the heels of Celestion and Marantz joining the mail-order retailer (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10576/">previous story</A>).

It is with regret that we announce to <I>Stereophile</I>'s readers the closing of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, on November 19, 1999. Known to audiophiles since its inception in 1977, the company provided serious listeners with hundreds of remastered LPs, cassettes, and CDs.

In the last two years, the available choices in 300B output tubes for one's low-wattage single-ended power amplifier have become an embarrassment of riches. If we include the souped-up versions&mdash;which, in fact, deviate from the original 1930s Western Electric (WE) specifications&mdash;the number of 300Bs to choose from now includes about 15 different brands and types.

<B>DVOR&#193;K: <I>Stabat Mater</I></B><BR> Christine Goerke, soprano; Marietta Simpson, mezzo-soprano; Stanford Olsen, tenor; Nathan Berg, bass-baritone; Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Robert Shaw<BR>Telarc 2CD-80506 (2 CDs). 1999. Robert Woods, prod.; Michael Bishop, eng. DDD. TT: 85:49<BR> Performance <B>****</B><BR> Sonics <B>*****</B>

Reader Paul W. Simoni noticed a big change in his audiophile habits after his child was born. He wonders how other audiophiles deal with the impact of "rugrats."

Last week, eight consumer-electronics manufacturers announced the formal establishment of the <A HREF="http://www.havi.org">Home Audio Video Interoperability Organization</A> (HAVi) to promote the development of products based on the the HAVi 1.0 final specification, scheduled for completion in December 1999. (An evaluation version of the HAVi 1.0 final spec can be downloaded from the HAVi website.) The HAVi Organization was founded by Grundig, Hitachi, Matsushita, Philips, Sharp, Sony, Thomson, and Toshiba, which have been working together for over two years to develop a specification to permit interoperability among networking digital home entertainment products.

On November 16, Technics and Panasonic presented their <A HREF="http://webevents.broadcast.com/dvdaudio/frames.html">DVD-Audio Q&A Forum</A> to answer questions online about the new high-end audio format, players, and software. After introductions and an opening orientation about DVD-Audio, the first "questions" appeared, canned, as the panelists read "answers" from their notes. Still, some interesting information came to light.