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Audiophile labels spend a good deal of effort trying to improve the transfer of music from the master tape to CD, DVD, or LP. Is this important to you?

The Secure Digital Music Initiative (<A HREF="http://sdmi.org/">SDMI</A&gt;) appears to be the antidote to many a record executive's worst audio poison: legions of young music fans downloading digital audio files off the Internet and passing them around with no regard to copyright restrictions. But what might be the answer to some companies' prayers could prove to be the Big Brother nightmare feared by others.

While decidedly "niche products," as Martin Colloms describes them, single-ended (SE) tube amplifiers have still found a happy home in many audiophile systems. But a trap awaits those who wish to evaluate the differences between an SE and a solid-state or push-pull tube amplifier, or between two SE amps. In "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//features/127/">The Unseen Variable</A>," Colloms digs to the bottom of this complicated matter.

The age of digital music downloads has begun in earnest. On July 20, <A HREF="http://www.emigroup.com/">EMI Recorded Music</A> announced that it has signed a deal with <A HREF="http://www.digitalon-demand.com/">Digital On-Demand</A> and its subsidiary, RedDotNet Inc., to make the EMI catalog available for downloading to kiosks in music stores. The kiosks will be equipped with CD "burners" where customers can copy EMI recordings not in stock in the stores. They will also be able to print out the original cover art and liner notes. Discs can be copied at high speed in 5 to 15 minutes using RedDotNet's technology, the announcement noted.

According to a report released last week by <A HREF="http://www.cahnersinstat.com">Cahners In-Stat Group</A>, a high-tech market research firm, the market for personal digital music players using audio compression technologies will experience a tremendous increase in growth through the next several years. Nearly $800 million in player sales are expected in 2003, spurred largely by widespread Internet access. The report also states that products in this segment will initially focus on downloading technologies like MP3, and over the next 12 months consumers should expect to see more features integrated into the players such as FM tuners, increased storage capacity, and security systems like Secure Digital Music Initiative (<A HREF="http://sdmi.org/">SDMI</A&gt;).

John Atkinson's and my collective response was "Good grief!" on hearing that the UK's <A HREF="http://www.haymarketgroup.co.uk/">Haymarket Magazines</A> had purchased <A HREF="http://www.gramophone.co.uk/">Gramophone Publications</A>. Minds boggled at the very idea of the venerable old lady of classical-music criticism getting into bed with the much younger, altogether brasher, and unashamedly populist <I>What Hi-Fi?</I>, market leader among UK hi-fi mags. As Haymarket enigmatically put it, "With its emphasis on in-depth reviewing, <I>Gramophone</I> itself has great synergy with other titles in the Haymarket portfolio, such as <A HREF="http://www.whathifi.com/"><I>What Hi-Fi?</I></A> magazine."

Winter had just touched down in Santa Fe two days before the recording sessions were to begin, leading Wes Phillips to wonder if the damp air would wreak havoc with tuning. But he needn't have worried, writing that violinist Ida Levin "played with such intense concentration that sometimes she seemed about to levitate off the floor as she chased a melodic line into the ether." In <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//features/125/"><I>Duet</I>: And Two to Carry Your Soul Away</A>, Ida Levin and John Atkinson join Wes Phillips in chronicling the recording from both musical and technical perspectives.