LATEST ADDITIONS

<I>Mom fights back:</I> As we've previously <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/news/020705riaa/">reported</A&gt;, the recording industry hasn't shied away from pursuing individuals it suspects of illegal downloading from peer-to-peer networks through the RIAA's "John Doe" lawsuits, most of which have intimidated the recipients into making out-of-court settlements. This strategy has, on several occasions, made the organization look foolish&mdash;as it assuredly did when it served a deceased 83-year-old.

Naxos, the world's leading distributor of classical music, has just signed a worldwide digital distribution deal with the Independent Online Distribution Alliance (IODA), which will use its Digital Distribution Dashboard (D3) technology platform to distribute and manage music files from the Naxos family of distributed music labels. The deal entails distributing titles to many of Naxos' 22 Digital Service Providers, including Sony Connect, Rhapsody, iTunes, Napster, and Microsoft (which charges consumers the lowest download price of all: $4.99 for an entire Naxos CD).

A little bit of advice can go along way when you are starting out. If you were to impart some words of audiophile wisdom to an audio newbie, what would they be?

"You're reviewing a <I>class-D</I> amplifier?" whined John Atkinson. "I <I>hate</I> measuring those."

"The realistic reproduction of orchestral music in an average room requires peak power capabilities of the order of 15 to 20W when the electro-acoustic transducer is a baffle-loaded moving-coil loudspeaker of normal efficiency."
&mdash;<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/121503walker/index.html">Peter Walker</A> and D.T.N. Williamson, writing in the <I>Journal of the Audio Engineering Society </I>in 1954

Most audiophiles probably consider low-fi media such as podcasts irrelevant. But this may change when accessories manufacturer <A HREF="http://www.boston-audio.com">Boston Audio Design</A> launches its new HiFi Industry Podcast Series later this fall.

<I>Name change:</I> Ultimate Acquisitions Partners, the company that operates the Colorado-based <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/news/022105industry/">Ultimate Electronics chain</A>, has announced that it is converting all nine of its Colorado SoundTrack consumer electronics superstores to the Ultimate Electronics brand name this September. That will allow all 32 of the company's retail stores to "deliver a consistent, unified message to consumers in all of its markets and more clearly communicate its offerings and store experience," according to a press release.