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The Super Audio CD is gaining serious momentum.

"My god. This was better than any hi-fi I had ever experienced&mdash;I actually had Sergei Rachmaninoff <I>in the room</I>, playing Mendelssohn just for <I>me</I>. I am not ashamed to say that I wept." I wrote those words in the January 2001 <I>Stereophile</I>, about hearing a piano-roll transcription of Rachmaninoff performing Mendelssohn's <I>Spinning Song</I> (Op.67 No.34) on a B&#246;sendorfer Imperial 290SE reproducing piano. I was in the middle of recording <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//musicrecordings/298/">Robert Silverman's cycle of Beethoven piano sonatas</A> at the Maestro Foundation in Santa Monica, where there just happened to be a floppy disk with Wayne Stahnke's transcription of the Rachmaninoff for the B&#246;sendorfer mechanism, which Stahnke invented.

DVD-Audio appears to be having a tough time gaining traction in the market, audiophile or otherwise. Any suggestions for getting its motor started? (We'll pick on SACD next week).

In apparent response to proposed federal legislation that would permit copyright holders to launch technological strikes against privately-owned computers, hackers launched an attack of their own over the weekend of July 27&ndash;28, rendering the website of the <A HREF="http://www.riaa.com">Recording Industry Association of America</A> (RIAA) unusable.

Late July was a volatile period for the music industry. On the 29th, Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Middelhoff announced his resignation. The "young lion" who ushered the German media conglomerate into the Internet age&mdash;and into an ill-advised $100 million investment in now-forgotten Napster&mdash;apparently had a very different vision for the future of the company than does the Mohn family, which controls 75% of Bertelsmann stock. "Shareholders had mid- and long-term development prospects that were different from mine," Middelhoff told reporters. "In this context, I had no choice but to resign." Bertelsmann is parent company of BMG, the music giant.

Choice is generally considered a plus, but as many of our readers note, when it comes to audio, a format war is the last thing consumers need. While the DVD-A/SACD conflict takes the center audio stage, other technology battles are being fought off in the wings, including the satellite radio format tussle 'twixt XM and Sirius.

It's been over a year since we last asked this one, so we're very interested in what trends might have emerged. DVD-Audio and SACD have seen new titles and machines hit the market, but we're wondering how many of you are buying in.