LATEST ADDITIONS

E-mail spam just got a lot noisier thanks to AT&T's <A HREF="http://www.a2bmusic.com">a2b music</A> and <A HREF="http://www.bmg.com/">BMG Entertainment</A>. (See previous stories <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10198/">1</A&gt;, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10133/">2</A&gt;.) Last week, they announced that BMG will deliver the first "mass communication" of a2b MAIL to the consumer databases of each of its websites, <A HREF="http://www.bugjuice.com">www.bugjuice.com</A&gt; (alternative and rock music), <A HREF="http://www.peeps.com">www.peeps.com</A&gt; (urban music), and <A HREF="http://www.twangthis.com">www.twangthis.com</A&gt; (country music).

The <A HREF="http://www.riaa.com/">Recording Industry of America</A>'s ongoing pursuit of music pirates bore fruit last week on Tuesday, July 7, when the organization collected $750,000 in settlements from three companies that had produced and marketed CD compilations of hit records. The RIAA also received $20,000 in restitution from Lloyd Schiffres, owner of Top Hat Productions, a disc-jockey supply house. Schiffres, who has been arrested three times, handed over 31 sets of his <I>For DJs Only</I> compilations.

June, 1998---"It's time to stop wasting the talents of brilliant American musicians because of their gender." And with that, an anonymous donor has given one million dollars to establish The National Women Conductors Initiative.

"Them which is of other naturs thinks different," said <I>Martin Chuzzlewit</I>'s Mrs. Gamp. If that is true, then Naim's Julian Vereker must be of a very different nature indeed. Vereker&mdash;and, by extension, Naim&mdash;has never done things the conventional way. Take, for example, power regulation and stiffening power supplies. Long before the rest of the world was taking them seriously, Naim offered upgrades to their components not by changing the audio circuitry, but by adding stiffer and stiffer outboard power regulation.

Because I'm suspicious of just twiddling knobs to make the sound "nice," I didn't rely solely on my ears when I used the Z-Systems rdp-1 that I review elsewhere in this issue for speaker and room contouring. Instead, I used the ETF speaker/room-analysis software from <A HREF="http://www.acoustisoft.com">Acoustisoft</A&gt; to help me manipulate the equalizer properly. This program can measure the first-arrival, on-axis speaker response, as well as the room response with its early and late reflections and its resonances.

In a move that acknowledges the increasing convergence of consumer electronics and computer technology, <A HREF="http://www.sony.com"&gt; Sony Electronics</A> has reorganized its US sales and marketing structure, and will emphasize digital performance in its new line of products. Foremost among these developments is Sony's recent announcement that its new line of audio and video products will prominently feature its VAIO personal computers. The notebook computers have editing features for video and motion-picture technology, and are quite popular in Japan, where around 100,000 have been sold.

The <A HREF="http://www.cemacity.org">Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association</A>'s recently released <A HREF="http://www.cemacity.org/gazette/files/cempub.htm"><I>U.S. Consumer Electronics Industry Today</I></A> indicates a healthy glow on the cheeks of specialty audio. US exports of component audio products amounted to $2.12 billion in 1997, an increase of 12% over the previous year's total of $1.89 billion. 1997's total represents a 25% increase over 1995, when almost $1.7 billion in separate audio products went out of the country. The figures are compiled by CEMA from US Department of Commerce figures.