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As any major college dude will tell you, the file-sharing genie can never be put back into the digital audio bottle. But that hasn't stopped the music business from pursuing its scorched-market policy while simultaneously applying various use-restriction technologies to every digital audio format in sight.

When it comes to dynamic range, it's the little things that count. As <A HREF="http://www.ti.com">Texas Instruments</A> explains, "Dynamic range is a parameter that expresses numerically how accurately sounds of small amplitude can be reproduced without distortion." In other words, the higher the dynamic range, the higher the quality of the sound, especially at low levels.

On Sunday, December 1, 2002, we celebrated five years of uninterrupted webcasting, our website having emerged from the Internet darkness on December 1, 1997 to become, at least in my eyes, an institution. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that "an institution is the lengthened shadow of one man," and www.stereophile.com is definitely the shadow of erstwhile high-end audio retailer Jon Iverson.

I first heard Eugene Gigout's pipe-organ masterpiece, the <I>Grand Chorus in Dialogue</I>, in the Smetana Concert Hall of Prague's Municipal House (Obecnim Dome) on a Saturday evening before the 2002 flood. I recall seeing the delicate, youthful Michele Hradecka sway from side to side to reach the pedals. In response, a massive wall of deep organ chords shook the hall, the magical acoustic blending the delicate, extended highs with the thunderous bass. But this memory mixed the music with the beauty of Prague's soaring church spires, brilliant red terracotta roofs, and lavish palaces.

It's always tough to follow an award-winning act. Wes Phillips raved about the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/237/">original EgglestonWorks Andra</A> back in October 1997, and it was subsequently dubbed <I>Stereophile</I>'s Speaker of the Year for 1997. The Andra won many other plaudits, and found its way into a number of top-shelf recording studios as the monitor of choice. Such a reputation for excellence is the stuff most speaker designers dream of. It also imposes the burden of expectation&mdash;the "new and improved" version of such a knockout product had better be good, or else.

We've all got a disc or two that we keep playing over and over, whether for system testing or the sheer love of the music. Which disc does it for you, and how many times have you listened to it?

From the current issue, Wes Phillips and John Atkinson tell the story of <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//features/714/"><I>Against the Dying of the Light</I>: the Second Cantus CD</A>. Phillips sets out to find the true genesis of this astonishing new recording from the Minnesota-based male-voice choir, while JA fills in the technical details.