LATEST ADDITIONS

B<i>illboard Magazine</i> announced an agreement this week with Liquid Audio, a developer of secure music-delivery systems on the Internet, to make <i>Billboard</i>'s extensive database of album reviews and audio previews available through <A HREF=" http://www.billboard.com/">Billboard Online</A>. The audio portion will be provided in <A HREF=" http://www.liquidaudio.com/">Liquid Audio</A> format by the Music Previews Network, the company that provides Music Previews for Billboard Online.

The dirty little secret about consumer CD recorders has recently been getting out: In order to record on one of the new "inexpensive" consumer CD machines from such manufacturers as Pioneer or Philips, you have to purchase special "consumer audio" CD-Rs that can cost three to four times as much as the same CD-R formatted for use with a professional or computer-based CD recorder.

It's not easy being an audiophile. Once you finally get that perfect (or near-perfect) pair of speakers, you've got to find a good location for them in your room, along with your other furniture. Did you build your room around your stereo, or do you prefer your stereo to fit into your mixed-use room?

It gets tougher every year to cover a show like the CES. Dropping in on most of the high-end audio rooms at the Alexis Park isn't so bad---the hard part is getting to all the various splinter exhibits scattered around Las Vegas within the allotted four days.

This is a somewhat different twist on other "Recommended Recordings" lists you may have read. Rather than a selection of all-time (or year's) best recorded performances---which are common enough---or a list of audiophile reference recordings---common enough in the audiophile press, at any rate, and a good thing, too---this is a list of stereo recordings that are both musically <I>and</I> sonically impeccable---in other words, the best, the tops, to die for---each item briefly described in a hundred or so words (except for JA, LA, and JGH, whose couplets runneth over).

Got a garage, a router, and a band saw? <I>Poof!</I> You're a speaker designer. How many audiophiles dream of buying some raw drivers, some MDF and veneer, building a baffle, soldering up a computer-designed crossover, and assembling the Shmendrick Audio 2001? Plenty.

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 10---Meridian has announced its intention to license Digital Harmony's IEEE 1394 (FireWire) technology. "Digital Harmony embodies the technology we can implement to produce the next generation of digital systems for home entertainment." So said Meridian's Bob Stuart, in an announcement sure to be a turning point for the high-end audio industry.