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If you search for "DVD-A" on this <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com">website</A&gt;, you can get the whole confusing story of the format, which has been the subject of one of the strangest format launches of recent years: First it's on, then it's off. The watermark is audible. No, it's not. Oops, it <I>is</I>&mdash;back to square one. There's software, there's no software. (There's <I>not</I>&mdash;only one demo disc officially available in September 2000, when I wrote this review!)

Metallica's Lars Ulrich and Creed's Scott Sapp don't get it. But Courtney Love understands, and so does Stereophile's Jon Iverson, who pointed out in the October issue's "As We See It" that the dispute between the RIAA and Napster is more important to audiophiles than it might seem. The Napster-MP3 phenomenon is a crack in the dike that controls music distribution. How the water seeps through that crack now will determine how it will flow when the drip turns into a trickle, the trickle into a stream, the stream into a river. Audiophiles and pop-music fans alike will be in the same boat.

New music, or a fresh interpretation of an old classic, is what keeps a music lover's life interesting. What three releases have been in heavy rotation for you recently?

Flexibility is the name of the game as <A HREF="http://www.thetadigital.com/">Theta Digital</A> plays it. The innovative Agoura Hills, CA company has announced the Casablanca II, a modular upgradable preamp/processor for music and cinema applications, as well as two-channel modules for its Dreadnaught power amplifier.

When audiophiles speak of "imaging," they may not be using the term metaphorically. Recent research at the University of California at San Diego's School of Medicine indicates that hearing and vision are more closely related than had been previously thought.

Last week's Comdex convention in Las Vegas showcased more examples of convergence between the consumer electronics and computer industries, especially in the areas of portable devices, home theater, and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10893/">digital audio</A>. DVD-Audio also received notice at the show, as chip developer <A HREF="http://www.zoran.com/">Zoran Corporation</A> announced the Vaddis V, its latest DVD multimedia processor, slated for mass production in spring 2001.

Not too long ago, the word "convergence" had everyone in the High End ready to duck'n'cover. Asia was on the ropes, and a shakeout was thinning the ranks of high-end audio manufacturers. Some US companies were marketing and selling most of their output to the Pacific Rim. The writing was on the wall: High-end was dead, and we'd all just better get used to listening to music on our computers.