LATEST ADDITIONS

Chip Stern notes that, "as often as not, it ain't the heat&mdash;it's the stupidity. When confronted by the smattering of self-referential dilettantes, acrimonious Internut wannabes, and obsessive-compulsive types who suck the air out of our aural fun-house, I find myself overcome with the desire to program my phaser for Clip." And fire away he does in "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/246/">Snobs, Slobs, & Marley's Ghost</A>," added to the Archives this week.

By their very nature, most audiophiles seem perpetually restless, never content with that last tweak. Following in that hallowed tradition, <A HREF="http://www.psaudio.com">PS Audio</A> has been trying to reinvent the technologies traditionally used in power-line conditioners to optimize those pulses of alternating current that juice our audio systems. The company made waves with the introduction of their Power Plant line of products last year (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10317/">previous report</A>); their P300 garnered a very positive <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//accessoryreviews/181/">review</A&gt; from <I>Stereophile</I>'s Robert Deutsch.

Audiophiles have complained since the earliest days of the compact disc that music reissued in the digital format often doesn't sound as good as it does on the original LPs. For nearly 20 years, such complaints have been dismissed by ordinary music lovers and by music-industry executives as the rantings of purists, but at least one major label is now admitting that many early CDs were not very good.

<I>Who the heck </I>is<I> this guy? Is he David Johansen, the lipstick-wearing front man of the seminal glam-rock, proto-punk New York Dolls? Is he Buster Poindexter, the pompadoured and tuxedoed "Hot, Hot, Hot" soca stylist? Is he a lounge singer? A Latin artist? Johansen is all of the above, having achieved success in each incarnation.</I>

As often as not, it ain't the heat—it's the stupidity. When confronted by the smattering of self-referential dilettantes, acrimonious Internut wannabes, and obsessive-compulsive types who suck the air out of our aural fun-house, I find myself overcome with the desire to program my phaser for CLIP.

Now that SACD and DVD-Audio players are available, it's time to hear your predictions for the new formats.

Federal courts long ago established that music fans have certain "fair use" rights when it comes to making copies of recordings they own. They can transfer recordings from one format to another&mdash;such as from LP to cassette tape or from CD to MiniDisc&mdash;and they can share those recordings with others, provided that the results are only for private, noncommercial use.