LATEST ADDITIONS

Although the CD was successfully released into the music industry gene pool 20 years ago, several companies are still tinkering with its DNA in order to assist record labels in restricting how consumers use their discs.

Guitars have been played for hundreds of years, and almost every musical style has at least some arrangements for guitar. So who do you like as a guitarist, no matter what style or type of music?

Responding to scrutiny by federal legislators, the <A HREF="http://www.riaa.com">Recording Industry Association of America</A> (RIAA) is backing away from the pursuit of small-scale copyright violators. After issuing more than 1000 subpoenas against alleged music pirates, the trade group announced on August 18 that it would go after only big fish in its efforts to contain the file-sharing epidemic.

To combat lackluster CD sales and online file trading, some record labels have been adding bonus DVDs to new releases to get consumers to buy them instead of downloading the data. DVD-Audio proponents, in an attempt to counter Super Audio Compact Disc's single-disc hybrid SACD/CD strategy, have been trying to figure out how to combine CD functionality and DVD-A onto one disc.

DVD-Audio is getting a boost from several directions.

At the end of July, UK-based TAG McLaren Audio, which had been experiencing difficult trading conditions and was reducing its workforce, issued a rather pessimistic <A HREF=&rdquo; http://www.stereophile.com/shownews.cgi?1701&rdquo;>announcement</A&gt;. The core of the announcement concerned the firm's commencement of "a full strategic review of its participation in the audio market."

All high-end audio companies turn over their product lines periodically. Even those amplifiers I have depended on as references go out of production. Although my reference amplifier can remain a part of the reviewing sequence, readers won't be able to purchase a discontinued model and get the results I describe. Thus I am compelled to get a review sample of a new amplifier or speaker, and hope for the best.