LATEST ADDITIONS

<I>XMas in August:</I> XM Satellite Radio held its annual "XMas in August" new product show in Jazz at Lincoln Center's Frederick P. Rose Hall on August 9. Trumpeting the XM-related products that will be available for the 2005 holiday shopping season, the satellite radio provider announced strategic relationships with Altec Lansing and Belkin Corporation, as well as newer, smaller receivers from longtime partners Audiovox and Delphi. A Samsung-sourced MP3-enabled receiver with Napster capabilities was also announced.

In this, its 50th year of company operations, <A HREF="http://www.phasetech.com/">Phase Technology</A> announced and demonstrated a new type of loudspeaker system. The series, named dARTS for Digital Audio Reference Theater System, is obviously aimed at the custom-install, home-theater market, but the components and concepts are applicable to music reproduction in any number of channels. As described by PT's director of sales and marketing, Tony Weber, the dARTS system is (1) modular and (2) actively powered and equalized by DSP, incorporating <A HREF="http://www.audyssey.com/">Audyssey</A>'s MultiEQ XT for digital room correction.

Let's suppose that every audiophile is granted one birthday gift wish this year. If your birthday was this week, what audiophile gift would be at the top of your list?

Tetra Speakers may not be a familiar name to many US audiophiles. Based in Ottawa, Ontario, the company has been around for a decade, but has taken a slow and steady approach to building its visibility in the insanely competitive and trend-conscious world of high-end loudspeakers.

The first epiphany I experienced in blind audio testing took place in the Dunfey San Mateo Hotel, in Northern California. We were stuffed into a largish, well-lit room in which dozens of listeners sat in chairs, and others stood around the back or sat on the floor. Up front were two large <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/506">B&W Matrix 801</A> speakers on tall stands spaced far apart, behind them, opaque curtains hid a small pile of audio equipment. John Atkinson and Will Hammond stood at stage left.

The last couple of years have been a bumpy ride for <A HREF="http://referencerecordings.com/">Reference Recordings</A>. The company's troubles began two years ago this week when it was <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11719/index.html">announced</A&gt; that it had been acquired by The Dorian Group after more than 25 years as an independent label dedicated to audiophile sonics.

<I>New cable:</I> <A HREF="http://www.rivercable.com">River Cable</A> has announced a new speaker cable called Flexygy 8, which employs eight conductors in a flat, flexible topology with "tremendous amounts of copper." Boasting a "unique ratio of low resistance-to-capacitance," Flexygy 8's capacitance is rated at 10pF/ft. Additionally, Flexygy 8 is touted as "an installation dream, [it goes] under carpets, along baseboards, with a super flexibility that can’t be beat in a cable with an aggregate AWG of 7."