LATEST ADDITIONS

To date, record label attempts at adding copy-control systems to CDs to restrict their use have been less than totally succesful. We've had Sony discs that <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11341/">get stuck in computers</A>, discs that <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11261/">don't reliably play</A> in all CD players, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11247/">trademark violations</A>, and CDs that generate <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11134/">lawsuits</A&gt; and consumer frustration from not being able to create a "fair-use" personal copy of a disc to throw in the car.

The subject was horses' fannies.

Single-ended triode amplifiers (SETs) have a considerable following, but even their most devoted fans admit that its maximum power output is not among an SET's strengths. You'd be lucky to get an SET that puts out 7Wpc, and some (like those using the 45 tube) are closer to 2Wpc. Highly sensitive speakers (<I>eg</I>, horns) will tend to offset the power limitation, and SETs usually sound more powerful than their measurements indicate, but the laws of physics still apply: 2W is 2W, regardless of the kind of amplifier that produces it, and an amplifier's manner of clipping and recovery from overload take us only part of the way toward achieving greater volume.

Pioneer, Marantz, Yamaha, and Onkyo now have universal disc-players on the market. Are you interested?

A long-running dispute between the music industry and small webcasters may have come to an amicable conclusion. Over the weekend of October 5-6, representatives from both sides agreed on a system of royalties to be paid to record labels and artists based on a percentage of webcaster revenue or expenses, rather than on a per song basis. Last summer, Librarian of Congress James Billington decreed that all webcasters should pay a royalty rate of 0.07&#162; per song per 1000 listeners. Many small webcasters, including many college radio stations, chose to go offline rather than face fees they couldn't afford.

For years, we've seen attempts to disguise <A HREF="http://www.audiocircuit.com/9041-esl-circuit/Commercial/Audio4-AU4/9041… as paintings</A>. A pair of announcements last week highlights the ongoing drive within the consumer electronics industry to find new ways to hide speakers within other objects.

Media critics may be right: If record companies had spent as much effort building a digital distribution network as they have fighting digital piracy, they might actually be making money online instead of complaining about it. This is the conclusion of a new report from KPMG and the Economist Intelligence Unit.