LATEST ADDITIONS

DVD-Audio has been "almost here" for so many months that it seemed almost anticlimactic when the first players finally emerged on dealer shelves this week. Late in May of this year, <A HREF="http://www.panasonic.com">Panasonic</A&gt; announced (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10757/">previous story</A>) that they would be releasing two players, one under the Panasonic banner and the other under the company's Technics brand, in July. It looks as if they've finally made good on their promise.

Judging from the e-mails we get, some folks wonder why <I>Stereophile</I>'s website continues to cover the advance of such lo-fi formats as MP3 as well as the problems encountered by companies like Napster as they tangle with the music business. But consider this: a new study reports that the market for digital music players will grow to $6.4 billion in 2005&mdash;more than 34 times 1999 shipments&mdash;which is also nearly 80% of the $8 billion reported for sales of <I>all</I> audio products, including portables, from last year (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10677/">previous article</A>).

It may come as a surprise to relative newcomers to the field of audio, but some loudspeaker manufacturers are manufacturers in only a limited sense. They buy drivers, off-the-shelf or custom-built, from companies like VIFA, SEAS, Focal, etc.; cabinets from a woodworking shop; and crossovers from an electronics subcontractor. While the system design will have taken place in-house, actual manufacturing is restricted to assembling the components, perhaps tweaking the crossover, and final QC. Even some highly successful loudspeaker manufacturers use this approach, which can work well as long as the suppliers do their jobs properly.

One can almost imagine how it all started: "Hey, you got a computer in my audio system." "No, you got an audio system in my computer . . . "

While Thiel Audio is primarily known for highly refined floorstanding speakers, John Atkinson thought it might be a good idea to give the stand-mounted <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/243/">Thiel PCS loudspeaker</A> a spin. In doing so, he confirmed, once again, that wire is not wire when it comes to speaker cables. But what of the speaker? JA's conclusions may surprise a few audiophiles.

Making good its intention to move heavily into the ever-expanding consumer-electronics market, <A HREF="http://www.ti.com/">Texas Instruments</A> has announced that it will acquire chipmaker <A HREF="http://www.burrbrown.com/">Burr-Brown Corporation</A> for $7.6 billion in stock. Burr-Brown makes some of the most highly regarded A/D and D/A converter chips on the market, many of them used in high-end audio and home-theater products.

The demise of Apogee Acousitics three years ago was one of high-end audio's biggest losses. The company's ribbon loudspeakers were among the best-sounding and best-looking high-fidelity products ever made. What remained of Apogee was picked up by a/d/s/, which at the time made a commitment to supply parts and service for the thousands of speakers in use, but that plan appears to have been abandoned shortly after it was announced. Apogee owners have since had to fend for themselves.