LATEST ADDITIONS

Kal Rubinson gets in shape for some heavy lifting to review the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/600/">B&W Signature 800 loudspeaker</A>. "The Signature 800 is part of B&W's Prestige line, which represents the best that B&W can do with present loudspeaker technology," reports Kal, who watched with anticipation as a team of four hefted the 275-pound beauties into place.

The entertainment industry has been crying wolf about the impending death of its collective livelihood since the first recording device hit the market decades ago. In spite of those dire predictions, reel-to-reel tape decks, cassette recorders, and VCRs hardly dented sales, and may in fact have contributed to unprecedented world-wide growth.

In his first e-mail to "Fine Tunes," Rafael Teodoro (RBT@wolfenet.com) addressed a subject that Mark Gdovin, that faithful frequenter of the Stereophile soapbox, had already brought up. Mark had gone so far as to give readers sage advice from his brother, a materials engineer, regarding the dangers of applying Armor All to speaker cones and surrounds.

I once got a fortune cookie that read, "Ask and ye shall receive. This includes trouble." A few years back, shopping for speakers, I inquired about reviewing the B&W Nautilus 802, but it was too soon after Wes Phillips had reviewed the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/207/">Nautilus 801</A> for <I>Stereophile</I>. So, other auditioning and reviewing (and buying) other speakers, I asked again, and again was met with deferral. Recently, out of the blue, B&W offered the Nautilus 802&mdash;then, in the next breath, asked if I'd rather have the Signature 800s.

Sometimes it all comes down to the shape of the side panels. I was smitten by the gentle curves of the Burmester B99 loudspeaker's aluminum side grilles, which have uncommon grace. A love affair with an enclosure? Well, yes. After all, beauty is an intensely personal matter. In the words of Burmester's motto: "Art for the ear."

Here's a question we last asked about a year ago: With the proliferation of high-resolution sound cards and other computer audio peripherals over the last couple of years, have you begun using your computer to play music?

Chip manufacturer <A HREF="http://www.esstech.com">ESS Technology</A> is no stranger to audiophiles interested in new formats. It was responsible for one of the first "universal" SACD/DVD-Audio <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11059/">decoding chips</A> and more recently was the supplier of a <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11296/">special-purpose chip</A> for Linn's SACD "Silver Disk Engine" designs.