LATEST ADDITIONS

As I write this in the first quarter of 2007, CD sales are off over 22% compared to this time last year. The music industry as we know it, based on sales of some kind of physical medium, is over. While CDs and even LPs will remain available—they're so easy and cheap to make—they've become irrelevant to the mass market and to the future of audiophile recordings. The major labels have also become irrelevant (not to mention highly irritating).

WILCO: <I>Sky Blue Sky</I><BR>
Nonesuch 131388 (CD). 2007. Wilco, prods.; TJ Doherty, eng.; Jim Scott, mix; Bob Ludwig, mastering. AAD? TT: 51:18<BR>
Performance *****<BR>
Sonics ****

The French have a phrase for it: plus ça change, plus la même chose, which can be roughly translated as "the more things change, the more they stay the same." I was reminded of this when recently reading through the December 1980 issue of The Absolute Sound. There on p.368 was the statement that "Dave Wilson (Virgo) has joined the staff...to construct a testing program that will allow us to determine if some of the peculiarities and anomalies we hear in evaluating equipment can indeed be numerically measured."

When Fred Kaplan made his <I>Stereophile</I> debut with his review of the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tubepoweramps/307rogue">Rogue Audio Atlas power amplifier</A> last March, our scheme was also to publish his writings on the music that fuels his soul, jazz. Starting this past weekend, you can find Fred's thoughts on recordings, concerts, musicians, and the music at <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/fredkaplan/">http://blog.stereophile.com/fr…;.

The 10th annual The Home Entertainment Show (T.H.E. Show), which will run January 7&ndash;10, 2008, concurrent with the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), has expanded its exhibit space to include both the completely renovated Alexis Park Resort Hotel and its neighbor, the St. Tropez Hotel. By using both venues, T.H.E. Show, in effect, throws down the gauntlet to CES, which last year abandoned its traditional high-end audio home at the Alexis Park and moved High-Performance Audio to the Venetian Hotel.

Tweeter Home Entertainment Group, Inc filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 11. The move was not entirely unexpected, since the company had indicated in <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/051407tweeter/">May</A&gt; that it might be forced to file if it could not access additional funding.

Fred Kaplan's new <I>Stereophile</I> blog, <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/fredkaplan/"><I>Jazz Messenger</I></A> is now up and running.