LATEST ADDITIONS

"What the heck is <I>that</I> icon trying to tell me?" I had switched on Denon's new DVD-3000 player&mdash;a cute "Welcome to DVD World" message scrolled across its display&mdash;and put a disc in its drawer. The icon, which looked at best like a Japanese character and at worst like a child's drawing of a house (complete with windows), was lit up in light blue on the display. But the game was given away by the magic words "96kHz 24 bit" illuminated in red below the mysterious icon. For this was no DVD movie, but a test pressing of <A HREF="http://www.chesky.com">Chesky</A>'s new Super Audio Disc, <I>The Super Audio Collection & Professional Test Disc</I>, which makes use of the DVD-Video specification's provision for including a two-channel, linear-PCM signal encoded with a 96kHz sampling rate and a word depth of up to 24 bits. (Contrary to what you may have read in the popular press, using DVD-Video to carry high-definition sound quality does not introduce a new and incompatible standard.)

Just about every bass player in the world joined Spinal Tap for "Big Bottom" at Live Earth. How could I leave this behind?
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Birds like 'em.

As we <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/news/030507kreisel/">reported</A&gt; last March, <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/interviews/136/">Ken Kreisel</A> declared bankruptcy, closing M&K Sound after 34 years of operation. Last week, the Great American Group, which, according to its website, "provides asset management, disposition, and financial services," <A HREF="http://www.greatamerican.com/admin/uploads/events/047adb79-a055-4a5a-95…; that it would offer M&K's $3 million in assets at auction on July 19.

We often hear that new music today is merely a shadow of what came before. In your opinion, which single year has had the most great music? Why?

Label heads&mdash;those at the very highest positions of power at music companies. To anyone who's spent time near the record business, they're a mythical breed. Like gnomes. Or dragons. Often, it's their vision that spells success or failure for the label they run. And what they say goes. Over the years, many a legendary creature has assumed the title: Goddard Lieberson, Clive Davis, Mo Ostin, to name just a few of those who have survived and prospered. The list of those who did not is at least twice as long.

Todd Garfinkle, guiding light of <A HREF="http://www.marecordings.com">M&bull;A Recordings</A>, travels the globe recording provocative music in unbelievably wonderful acoustic settings. Todd travels to exotic climes such as Macedonia and Southern Siberia to capture unique and beautiful traditional ethnic music and song. He records with only two omnidirectional microphones, the signals of which are fed into handmade recording equipment designed especially for his work. Kathleen and I caught up with him at St. Peter's on 20th Street, a popular recording venue in the West Village. After wrapping a session, Todd stopped by our loft, where we rolled some tape of our own...