LATEST ADDITIONS

It's always tough to follow an award-winning act. Wes Phillips raved about the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/237/">original EgglestonWorks Andra</A> back in October 1997, and it was subsequently dubbed <I>Stereophile</I>'s Speaker of the Year for 1997. The Andra won many other plaudits, and found its way into a number of top-shelf recording studios as the monitor of choice. Such a reputation for excellence is the stuff most speaker designers dream of. It also imposes the burden of expectation&mdash;the "new and improved" version of such a knockout product had better be good, or else.

I first met NHT co-founder <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//interviews/232/">Ken Kantor</A> in 1975 when we were both undergraduates at MIT. Kantor was sponsoring an extracurricular class entitled "Musical Ideas." The concept was to stick a dozen or so musicians in a classroom for free improvisation and hope to create music &#224; la Miles Davis' <I>Bitches Brew</I>. The result was a mess; although talented guitarist Kantor meant well, there was no common vision or consistency of musical talent. Nevertheless, I had a blast trying to simulate a tamboura drone with a Hohner Clavinet, phase shifter, and volume pedal.

We've all got a disc or two that we keep playing over and over, whether for system testing or the sheer love of the music. Which disc does it for you, and how many times have you listened to it?

<A HREF="http://www.cirruslogic.com">Cirrus Logic</A> has become the latest chipmaker to license audio watermarking technology from San Diego&ndash;based <A HREF="http://www.verance.com">Verance Corporation</A>. Cirrus will integrate Verance copy-prevention and copy-tracking technology in "a new line of high-performance chipsets for DVD devices," according to a November 20 announcement. Cirrus Logic's entry into the DVD-A arena may help boost market acceptance of the DVD-A format, executives conjectured.

Disc piracy is a profitable but increasingly risky business, with bootlegging-related shootings and armed robberies on the rise. Modern pirates have begun to imitate their sea-going ancestors, using force to acquire assets and territory.

When do fractions of pennies add up to millions of dollars? Answer: When they are accumulated unpaid royalties for one of the most popular albums of all time.

Linn's early decision to develop hard-disk audio systems first got our attention when the Kivor project <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10645/">was announced</A> back at the 2000 Consumer Electronics Show. The Linn Kivor has now spent almost two years on the market, garnering a positive <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/497/">review</A&gt; from John Atkinson and a special "Editor's Choice" mention in this month's 2002 Products of the Year.