LATEST ADDITIONS

Since the earliest days of stereo—the first experiments with more than single-channel sound happened back in the 1930s—recording and playback have been based on a horizontal model: left-center-right, left-rear, right-rear. "Laterality," as it's sometimes called, can be exploited very well in creating plausible sensations of spatial events, especially by film-industry sound engineers. The believable reproduction of music is considerably more problematic.

According to a recent report released by Information Technology researchers <A HREF="http://www.frost.com">Frost & Sullivan</A>, the world Internet audio market generated revenues totaling $42 million in 1998, which dwarfs the 1997 revenues by 1516%. The report predicts that this market will continue growing at a healthy rate, achieving an increase into the triple percentage digits by the end of 1999.

Wes Phillips writes, "I catch John's eye and wonder if he's pondering the same question I am: <I>What were we thinking?</I>" In addition to trying to push forward the limits of getting great sound onto tape, <I>Stereophile</I>'s release of <I>Rhapsody In Blue</I> would offer the public a groundbreaking arrangement of George Gershwin's most popular orchestral work. In "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//features/124/">The <I>Rhapsody</I> Project</A>," Hyperion Knight and John Atkinson join Wes in chronicling their perspectives on the processes leading to this landmark recording.

One room at the 1999 CES in Las Vegas that knocked me for a loop was the Avalon/Class&#233; installation mentioned in my April show report. Class&#233; had just debuted the Omega preamp, the companion piece to the Omega amplifier I reviewed in March. It proved a very suave, musical, and high-performance marriage.

As a follow-up to last week's question, we'd like to know what audio gear gets your vote for best-looking product of all time.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.ti.com">Texas Instruments</A>, <A HREF="http://www.liquidaudio.com">Liquid Audio</A>, Fraunhofer, and <A HREF="http://www.sandisk.com">SanDisk</A&gt; announced that they've teamed to offer what they describe as "the first complete solution" for the secure downloading of music off the Internet onto portable audio players. The companies say that their programmable DSP-based technology is the first to meet the newly released <A HREF="www.sdmi.org">Secure Digital Music Initiative</A> (SDMI) guidelines for digital music portable devices, and is now available for manufacturers who want to develop secure players in time for Christmas 1999.

Loudspeaker designer Bill Eggleston has joined <A HREF="http://www.Cello-US.com/">Cello Technologies Corporation</A>. He will oversee the development of a new line of no-compromise loudspeakers, according to a company press release dated July 1. Eggleston designed the Andra loudspeaker, which was designated <I>Stereophile</I>'s "Product of the Year" for 1997.