LATEST ADDITIONS

If <A HREF="http://lydstrom.com/">Lydstrom, Inc.</A> has anything to do with it, the next hot ticket in home audio won't be just another CD player, but a musical database manager capable of organizing and playing as many as 5000 songs, from CDs or from Internet downloads. The Boston, Massachusetts-based company announced June 30 that it has licensed <A HREF="http://www.lucent.com/">Lucent Technologies</A>' Enhanced Perceptual Audio Coder (ePAC) for inclusion in a product as yet unnamed but projected to be available by Christmas 1999.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.ti.com">Texas Instruments</A>, <A HREF="http://www.liquidaudio.com">Liquid Audio</A>, Fraunhofer, and <A HREF="http://www.sandisk.com">SanDisk</A&gt; announced that they've teamed to offer what they describe as "the first complete solution" for the secure downloading of music off the Internet onto portable audio players. The companies say that their programmable DSP-based technology is the first to meet the newly released <A HREF="www.sdmi.org">Secure Digital Music Initiative</A> (SDMI) guidelines for digital music portable devices, and is now available for manufacturers who want to develop secure players in time for Christmas 1999.

Loudspeaker designer Bill Eggleston has joined <A HREF="http://www.Cello-US.com/">Cello Technologies Corporation</A>. He will oversee the development of a new line of no-compromise loudspeakers, according to a company press release dated July 1. Eggleston designed the Andra loudspeaker, which was designated <I>Stereophile</I>'s "Product of the Year" for 1997.

Folk wisdom has it that it's wiser not to lock the gate after the horses have escaped. The <A HREF="http://www.sdmi.org/">Secure Digital Music Initiative</A>, a consortium of 140 music, software, and hardware companies, has taken that adage to heart. In a significant departure from its original intent to block the distribution of free music on the Internet, the Secure Digital Music Initiative announced in the last week of June that its forthcoming specification for music software and hardware will accommodate the "legacy content" already in existence. There are reportedly as many as 500,000 songs available in the MP3 format, and they will continue to be available even as new, robustly encrypted music comes onto the market.

It's been 30 years since hordes of wild-eyed music lovers converged on White Lake, a small town just north of New York City, for an event that would soon become an icon for a generation. Could anyone back then have imagined that, three decades later, Woodstock would cost $150/ticket and evolve into a marketing opportunity and website?

After establishing a reputation for building small, magnificent-looking, very expensive, stand-mounted loudspeakers, the Italian manufacturer Sonus Faber has hit the ground running. First came the moderately priced ($3500/pair) floorstanding Concerto Grand Pianos, and now the company's "statement" loudspeaker, the Amati Homage--a $20,000/pair visual stunner that earns its keep almost by looks and touch alone.

Some audio companies, such as Bang & Olufsen, concentrate just as many resources into their products' appearance as into their sound. Does this matter to you?