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Some audiophiles tend to get a mite sniffy around those of us who have expensive tastes and limited budgets. I've always been willing to spend the price of a new car on a set of speakers, but I never had the cash or credit. The sonic virtues of hefty, high-powered Krells and wondrous, single-ended tube designs always enchanted me, but when you're raising a family you make do. Through my experiences in a high-end audio establishment I learned the metaphysics of mixing and matching as befits my lowly caste, and I gradually developed sophisticated reference points, so that as the years swept by I managed to inch my way up the aural food chain.

You can read all about an automobile, check its gear ratios, and ponder the engine's horsepower all you want—but until you put yourself in the driver's seat and take that baby out for a spin, you have no idea whether or not it's going to be fun to drive.

All the action in digital playback for the past seven years has taken place in separate transports and digital processors. Nearly all high-end manufacturers have focused their skills on perfecting the individual elements of the digital playback chain—transports and processors—rather than on designing integrated CD players.

Just look at the dates and you'll see a legacy that essentially spans the entire history of electrical music reproduction. That's fitting. In his career—or more properly, many careers—Irving M. ("Bud") Fried all but embodied that era.

If you're an audiophile&mdash;and let's face it, who else would be reading this&mdash;then you know what <I>any</I> hard-core audioweenie would do when visiting a strange city. Visit the hi-fi shops, of course.

When we <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/news/011705dorian/">last left them</A>, a troubled Dorian Group had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In mid-January, the company issued a statement indicating that it would liquidate its assets and begin requesting bids for the purchase of the company in a sealed bidding process authorized by the US Bankruptcy Court, Northern New York District.

When you download a music file from pay services, you get DRM or digital rights management that restricts how you use the file. Is this a problem for you?