LATEST ADDITIONS

Streaming multiple channels of music has proven a big hit with satellite customers, so it seems natural that <A HREF="http://www.dmxmusic.com">DMX</A>---a subsidiary of TCI Music (soon to be renamed Liberty Digital), and the company responsible for bringing audio to 2.6 million dish owners---would move to the Internet. Last week, DMX announced a multi-year, multi-phase global distribution agreement under which the DMX music service will be transmitted on <A HREF="http://www.lycos.com">Lycos</A>&#039; network of websites.

S<I>tereophile</I> editor John Atkinson---arguably the high-end audio publishing industry's single most important figure, and certainly its intellectual nexus---has seen it all in his 23 years in the high-end audio industry. At HI-FI '99 in Chicago, <A HREF="http://www.audiocafe.com/">Audiocafe.com</A>'s Andrew Keen was able to pull JA away from his busy schedule for an in-depth interview about his views on the industry's current state of affairs---and on what's just over the horizon.

Providing another boost to the nascent DVD-Audio market, <A HREF="http://www.zoran.com">Zoran Corporation</A>, a provider of integrated circuits (ICs) and software for digital video and audio applications, announced last week the availability of a new DVD decoder IC chip, the <A HREF="http://www.vaddis.com">Vaddis IV</A>. Zoran says the chip is optimized for fourth-generation DVD players and will include integrated DVD-Audio decoding. According to the company, the new Vaddis IV decoder enables the design of flexible and advanced---yet affordable---new DVD players.

In <I>Stereophile</I>'s "Recommended Components," most full-range Class A speakers&mdash;and even some in Class B&mdash;are behemoths. Some are tall, some are wide, some are deep, and some are just plain big. Most of us would find such no-compromise devices physically imposing and visually distracting in our listening rooms. Putting aside the infamous "Spousal Acceptance Factor," how can you ignore such speakers' presence and concentrate on the music?

Sony and Philips claim that a big advantage to SACD is that the high-resolution SACD discs can be back-compatible with regular CD players. DVD-Audio proponents say that DVD-Audio discs can be made back-compatible with CD players as well if consumers want it. Do you want it?

Houston, Texas-based <A HREF="http://www.astrojams.com/">AstroJams</A&gt; is back online with Grateful Dead MP3s. The site <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10430/">shut down</A> its offerings of Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Band downloads after receiving a cease-and-desist order from attorneys for Grateful Dead Productions in April. At issue was the site's use of advertising to generate revenue. GDP claims the sole legal right to commercial benefits stemming from the use of the band's music and logos, but had "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10440/">never objected</A>" to the free sharing of music in the Dead tradition, according to Dennis McNally of GDP's publicity department.

In a tersely worded press release, Carver Corporation announced that on Wednesday, May 12, 1999 it filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 11 in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Washington. The cause of the filing was "an accumulation of unpaid debt and resulting legal actions filed by creditors. These actions created the prospect of an inequitable distribution of payment to creditors and prevented the Company from being able to operate as a functioning business entity. In October of 1998, the Company ran out of working capital and laid off the remainder of its workforce. Subsequently, at the invitation of the Board of Directors, Robert W. Carver, the founder of the Company and former CEO, stepped in to take over."