LATEST ADDITIONS

<I>Stereophile</I>'s senior contributing editor, Michael Fremer, and the magazine's editor at large, Art Dudley, are both giving presentations this spring at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Michael appears on Tuesday, March 28, followed two weeks later, on April 11, by Art Dudley.

<I>Last week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF) <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/031306eff/">Fred von Lohmann</A> talked with us about how fair use created unexpected riches for Hollywood, created the iPod boom, and how dismantling it could prove disastrous for consumers. This week, we resume that conversation with a discussion about digital rights management (DRM) and why the computer industry is willing to support it, even though its consumers never asked for it.</I>

It was my hunt for new and interesting-looking turntables at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show that introduced me to the loudspeakers from DeVore Fidelity. In the Glass Amplifier room I spied a Teres turntable with a Darth Vader-ish look and sat down to listen. From a pair of nondescript, two-way, floorstanding speakers so small they were almost lost in the room, came surprisingly present, full-bodied, and notably coherent music. Their sound so far exceeded my low expectations that I exclaimed, "What are those?! Whoever designed them sure knows what he's doing!"

The W-8 ($10,200) is the first of Simaudio's Moon series to incorporate the new Evolution cosmetics and new circuitry. I loved its predecessor, the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/167">Moon W-5</A>, which was one of the first power amplifiers I reviewed for <I>Stereophile</I> (March 1999, Vol.22 No.3). I also loved the "new and improved" W-5 when I wrote about in the May 2001 issue. In the September 2005 issue, Brian Damkroger praised Simaudio's monstrous <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/905sim">Moon Rock</A> monoblock, a contemporary of the Moon Evolution W-8 stereo amp.

My stepfather wore only second-hand clothes as a child and never understood why anyone would deliberately wash the color out of his new dungarees. By the same token, the senior members of our hobby, many of whom recall with fondness the transistor's advent, don't understand why anyone would now wish to throw away their newfound power. Some people deserve to be blessed for their point of view, even as the world moves away from it.

It turns out that <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/031606howto/">Dr. L.R., PhD</a>, does not have two first names. While her last name is spelled just like a very ordinary first name, it is pronounced in a way that makes it something entirely different.

Urrrp!