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One can almost imagine how it all started: "Hey, you got a computer in my audio system." "No, you got an audio system in my computer . . . "

While Thiel Audio is primarily known for highly refined floorstanding speakers, John Atkinson thought it might be a good idea to give the stand-mounted <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/243/">Thiel PCS loudspeaker</A> a spin. In doing so, he confirmed, once again, that wire is not wire when it comes to speaker cables. But what of the speaker? JA's conclusions may surprise a few audiophiles.

Back when DVD players were first released in the US, <A HREF="http://www.classicrecs.com/">Classic Records</A> was among the first companies to exploit the fact that early machines, though intended for the video enthusiast, could play a 24-bit/96kHz audio recording as well as movies (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10072/">previous story</A>). These early high-resolution discs, which Classic called DADs, were intended to hold us over until DVD-Audio (then thought to be just around the corner) would finally hit the market. More than two years later we're still waiting for DVD-A, but Classic intends to be ready when it finally appears.

The demise of Apogee Acousitics three years ago was one of high-end audio's biggest losses. The company's ribbon loudspeakers were among the best-sounding and best-looking high-fidelity products ever made. What remained of Apogee was picked up by a/d/s/, which at the time made a commitment to supply parts and service for the thousands of speakers in use, but that plan appears to have been abandoned shortly after it was announced. Apogee owners have since had to fend for themselves.

For months now, the music industry has concentrated all its legal firepower on <A HREF="http://www.napster.com/">Napster</A&gt;, the Silicon Valley&ndash;based software company that lets users share music; and against San Diego's <A HREF="http://www.mp3.com/">MP3.com</A&gt;, which lets users upload their music to a central server and then access it from any Internet-connected computer. As of the end of June, it appears that MP3.com will likely be co-opted by the industry's Big Five until it is no longer a threat&mdash;two of the major labels have already settled with the startup&mdash;but Napster will fight on.

Although Kentucky loudspeaker manufacturer Thiel has produced some standmounted models for home-theater use, all of their serious music speakers have been floorstanders. Enter the PCS: even though styled to match every Thiel speaker since the groundbreaking CS5 of 1989, the 19"-high PCS sits on a stand, not the floor.

The Mirage OM-6 loudspeaker, from Canadian manufacturer Audio Products International, mightily impressed <I>Stereophile</I>'s Tom Norton when he reviewed it back in November 1997. But with its "omnipolar" design and powered woofer, the OM-6 wasn't a speaker for those of us with more conventional tastes in speaker design. So when I heard that Mirage's Ian Paisley was working on a high-performance two-way minimonitor based on the OM-6's drive-unit technology, I asked API's affable PR man, Jeff Percy, for review samples.