LATEST ADDITIONS

<I>Note: this article has been updated at the bottom on July 5, 2005 with a statement from Nagra CEO G&#233;rard Beuchat.</I>

<I>Good Morning America:</I> The war for listeners between XM Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio has seen MLB go to one broadcaster (XM) and Howard Stern to the other. On June 21, Sirius announced an agreement that will put the BBC's popular Radio 1 on a time-shifted broadcast schedule. The time-shift will enable American listeners to hear Radio 1's broadcast day "as it was intended&mdash;with Chris Moyles' <I>Breakfast Show</I> in the morning, Scott Mills' show in the afternoon, and kicking off the weekend with Pete Tong's Friday night <I>Essential Selection</I>," according to a press release.

The music industry and the file-sharing community have been waiting nervously for the impending Supreme Court decision in <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/041105supremes/index.html">MGM <I>vs</I> Grokster</A>, which is expected any day. At stake is not only peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, but the development of future forms of music distribution.

The possible approaches to any technical problem range from trial and error to first-principles physics. Then there's the "purist" approach&mdash;the simplest, most direct way to meet the challenge. Often, the purist approach doesn't pan out because of such phrases as "we need 60 tons of molten gold" or "can we cool the entire building to absolute zero?" But in the world of high-end cables, the purist approach <I>is</I> viable, and is exactly where you find Jeffrey Smith.

Morten Lauridsen's magisterial work for chorus and orchestra, <I>Lux aeterna</I>, appears in a fresh new recording, in truly excellent sound, on England's Hyperion label. The vocal ensemble Polyphony is accompanied by the Britten Sinfonia; both are led by Stephen Layton. Better yet, in addition to the CD-only version, there is a separate SACD/CD hybrid release (Hyperion SACDA67449), meaning that it is backwardly-compatible with CD players. Furthermore, the SACD layer contains a surround-sound program in addition to the stereo one.

Attacking the compact disc has lately become almost a blood sport among audiophiles and audio writers. Not a month goes by that I don't read&mdash;often in <I>Stereophile</I>&mdash;some vehement statement about how CDs are a musical abomination.

Since March, Sony BMG has released "at least 10 commercial titles" employing XCP2 technology developed by UK-based antipiracy company <A HREF="http://www.first4internet.co.uk/">first4Internet</A&gt;. Sony BMG claims that the 10 titles represent "over one million units," but the company steadfastly refuses to specify which titles have XCP2.