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More good news for budget-conscious audiophiles who are waiting for that all-in-one universal high-resolution audio player: Yet another chip manufacturer is announcing a decoder IC that will allow new DVD machines to untangle just about any audio file format. Last week, LuxSonor Semiconductors joined the growing list (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11059/">previous</A&gt;) of chip manufacturers that are including both DVD-Audio and SACD in one package.

Maybe it's only fair: Consumer electronics giants like Sony have been selling personal computers lately, so computer manufacturer <A HREF="http://www.compaq.com/ipaqaudio">Compaq</A&gt; announced last week that it will begin selling audio products. Joining Intel in making the transition from the computer industry to consumer electronics, Compaq has now redefined itself as "a global enterprise technology and solutions company."

First, the sobering reality: Among the world's billions of music lovers, probably a million or fewer are true audiophiles, for whom sound quality is a primary concern. The uncritical majority will embrace any audio technology that offers economy and convenience. Case in point: the popularity of the MP3 digital format, widely derided by audiophiles for its compressed dynamics and lack of detail, but adopted readily by the general public because of its ease of use.

Reader Bard-Alan Finlan is wondering what readers of <I>Stereophile</I> think about the recent introduction of ads for BMW cars and <I>FHM</I> magazine.

Music industry attorneys may not enjoy much of a summer vacation. The season got off to a litigious start with a flurry of lawsuits by and against record labels and music-based websites.

When is a music sample not a sample but an actual product? Are those 30-second audio snippets used at online music-retailer websites and in stores considered samples and therefore covered under fair use copyright laws? These are some of the questions that the <A HREF="http://www.narm.com/">National Association of Recording Merchandisers</A> are asking the copyright office as another battle heats up between the record labels (represented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)) and the music retailers (represented by NARM).

Which has more value in the 21st century: the constitutionally-guaranteed right to free speech or the music industry's right to protect its encryption technology? Princeton University professor Edward W. Felten intends to find out.