LATEST ADDITIONS

The December issue sees <I>Stereophile</I> publish its 2002 "Products of theYear" (<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/showarchives.cgi?724">added to the website</A> this week). The reviewers and editor have made their choices, so what are yours?

As tighter restrictions on the use of both audio and video digital content <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11393/">loom in the legislature</A>, the <A HREF="http://www.hrrc.org">Home Recording Rights Coalition</A> (HRRC) and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) have teamed up to counter the ever-increasing demands from copyright holders. The HRRC, founded in 1981, is a leading advocacy group for consumers' rights to use home electronics products for private, non-commercial purposes.

Singer Sam Moore has won a protracted lawsuit brought against retirement fund trustees of the <A HREF=http:"//www.aftra.com">American Federation of Television and Radio Artists</A> (AFTRA). The settlement of the nine-year-old case was announced in an Atlanta federal court on Wednesday, December 5.

You thought it was crowded last year? The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) announced last week that, as of the beginning of December, it looks like the <A HREF="http://www.CESweb.org">2003 International Consumer Electronics Show</A> (CES) will feature a record-breaking amount of exhibit space, surpassing 1.2 million square feet.

John Atkinson and Stephen Mejias tally the writer and editor votes to present "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//features/724/">The 2002 Products of the Year</A>." As JA comments, "For more than a decade now, <I>Stereophile</I> has recognized components that have proved capable of giving musical pleasure beyond the formal review period."

It's no longer news that uncontrolled spurious vibration is one of the greatest threats to high-quality sound and video reproduction. Source components are, by themselves, a nightmare to isolate from the omnipresent vibrations in the environment. The intrusion of uncontrolled spuriae into the playback of LPs, CDs, SACDs, and DVDs has a deleterious and occasionally disastrous effect on the ability of the stylus or laser to precisely do its almost-molecular-scale job. Electronics are nearly as susceptible to such vibration-induced headaches as microphonics.

In the December issue, JA discusses measurement graphs that don't jibe with real-world performance. Even though they sometimes don't seem to reinforce a reviewer's opinion, are the graphs and measurements with each review important to you?