LATEST ADDITIONS

<A HREF="http://www.gateway.com">Gateway Computer</A> appears intent on expanding into the home entertainment arena.

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?

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.