LATEST ADDITIONS

The Ultimate Audio Toy—Or, if you will, the apotheosis of the iPod.

<I>Flip flip flip</I>]...Where the heck is it?...[<I>flip flip flip</I>]...Got it!" What am I looking for? There, in black and white, on p.634 of J. Gordon Holt's <I>Really Reliable Rules for Rookie Reviewers</I> (footnote 1), is the Prime Directive On Loudspeaker Setup: "Never, ever, choose a loudspeaker that has too much bass extension for your room!"

When a loudspeaker designer produces a world-class product, it is usually the result of years, perhaps decades, of experience gained from designing less ambitious products. To review a particular designer's product history is to witness the learning curve in action as both his skill and technology advance. Successfully battling the laws of physics to produce a truly exceptional loudspeaker is thus thought of as the domain of the seasoned veteran whose vast knowledge and experience culminate in the pinnacle of his career&mdash;a world-class loudspeaker. Moreover, it is just these designers, working their way up to their masterpiece, who are the most successful at getting an ambitious design right. The high-end loudspeaker business is littered with the remains of companies that attempted to build a first product far too lofty for their skills.

<B>Free, as in "no charge":</B> RealTraps reports that it has upgraded ModeCalc, a graphical room-mode prediction software that it offers as a free download (Windows only, 1.3MB) to help people design new listening rooms, or assess the low-frequency response in existing rooms. The company says the new version of ModeCalc offers "several clever features, including a display that better identifies modes that are too close together, and a revised and expanded tutorial in the included Help system."

On October 27, <I>MarketWatch</I> <A HREF="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?siteid=mktw&guid=%7BBA…; that EMI Music's chairman and CEO, Alain Levy, told an audience, "The CD as it is right now is dead." Speaking at the London Business School, Levy said that 60% of consumers rip CDs into their home computers in order to listen to them on digital music players.

<b>Long Before Deceit and Lust</b>

After the 2006 TDF, even the most innocent of us must realize how pervasive doping is at the highest competitive levels. How much would us athletic duffers benefit from chemical augmentation?