LATEST ADDITIONS

Running close on the heels of the 105th AES Convention in San Francisco, the <A HREF="http://www.dvdforum.org">DVD Forum</A> held its conference two days later in the posh Hyatt Regency near the SF Airport. Attended by a variety of computer and consumer-electronics industry folk who manufacture and sell DVD discs and hardware, more than half of day one was devoted to the emerging DVD-Audio format. Although the presentations became highly technical at times, the sheer variety of possible formats and applications for DVD-Audio became apparent. Whether this is a blessing or a fatal flaw, all agreed that the consumer will ultimately determine DVD-Audio's fate in the next 2 to 5 years.

Day Four at <A HREF="http:www.aes.org/">AES</A&gt;. The crowds were somewhat thinner, but the convention floor was still buzzing, still incredibly busy right up to 4pm, the official break-down time. I spent a couple of hours strolling the floor with <A HREF="http://vacuumtube.com/">Vacuum Tube Valley</A>'s Eric Barbour, who works another side of the thermionic street as an application engineer for Svetlana, the Portola Valley, CA-based importer of Russian-made tubes. Svetlana will soon be making the ubiquitous 12AX7 and other popular tubes in its St. Petersburg factory, he told me. Instability in Russia has hindered production recently, but Eric said all such problems have been solved. He also mentioned that <I>VTV</I> has moved to new offices and should soon be published quarterly. I stood by as he made a sales call at the <A HREF="http://www.mil-media.com/">Millennia Media</A> booth.

Cats vs. dogs, Wile E. Coyote vs. Roadrunner, Spy vs. Spy, Analog vs. Digital. It seems that some battles will never end, and so it is with flux vs. bits in the professional recording industry. The Audio Engineering Society (AES) conventions dazzle showgoers with the latest audio recording and processing gear, mostly digital, and this year's show is no exception. The big buzz heard 'round the hall were higher sampling and quantization rates for future music formats such as DVD-Audio. But off-site, at the nearby ANA hotel (great choice of venue---just add LOG) in downtown San Francisco, key industry heavyweights were holding a meeting to discuss the future of analog recording technologies.

<B>BILLY BRAGG & WILCO: <I>Mermaid Avenue</I></B><BR> Elektra 62204-2 (CD). 1998. Billy Bragg, Wilco, Grant Showbiz, prods.; Jerry Boys, eng.; Nora Guthrie, exec. prod. AAD? TT: 49:42<BR> Performance <B>****?</B><BR> Sonics <B>****</B>

Last week we asked about the cost of your system, but reader Matt H. suggested we ask about the cost of the software to feed it.

For years, credit cards have allowed people to earn points toward air travel and automobiles, so earning credits for audio and video gear seems a no-brainer. Last week, Sony Electronics and Citibank launched the <A HREF="http://www.sony.com/sonycard">Sony Citibank Card</A>, a co-branded credit card that allows consumers to earn points toward the purchase of a variety of Sony entertainment and merchandise.

James Bongiorno needs your help. The legendary electronics designer, whose pioneering work with fully complementary solid-state amplifiers has become part of engineering's standard lexicon, is battling liver cancer.