LATEST ADDITIONS

I've watched from the sidelines with great interest the recent debate in this column over Home Theater (footnote 1) At one extreme is the suggestion that <I>Stereophile</I> begin reviewing video and Home Theater products. The other end of the spectrum was best expressed by John Atkinson at <I>Stereophile</I>'s 1993 High-End Hi-Fi Show in San Francisco. Hearing the booming bass overflow of a Home Theater demonstration blasting down a hallway, he said, "They've brought <I>televisions</I> to our hi-fi show!"

Here in Chicago the other day, I was on my way to an appliance store, so audio was the last thing on my mind. But, as if by some miraculous intervention (or just stupidity), I parked and went in the wrong store: "Why does this appliance store have bins and bins of CDs in it?" Realizing my mistake, I found the stoves and ranges I was looking for next door&mdash;but not before noticing bins and bins of used LPs behind all those CDs.

Perhaps I first should have consulted my horoscope in the local newspaper. But I can't imagine what it could have said that might have warned me off. So, in blissful ignorance, I went to the local big-box consumer-electronics chain retailer and laid down my lettuce. I thought I was buying the SACD version of Norah Jones' <I>Come Away With Me</I> (Blue Note 5 41472 8), but, by the end of the affair, I felt I'd gotten <I>The Royal Scam</I> (footnote 1).

From the October 2004 issue, Larry Greenhill reviews the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/1004rel">REL Studio III subwoofer</A>, explaining, "Determined to experience sub-bass in my listening room, I arranged with REL's US importer, Sumiko Audio, to audition their largest subwoofer, the Studio III."

You hear a dismaying amount of bad sound on the Audio Engineering Society (<A HREF="http://www.aes.org">AES</A&gt;) convention floor. Tizzy high frequencies and mushy bass are more common than not, but encouragingly, good-sounding products tend to draw small crowds or generate a buzz among attendees.

Multichannel music was addressed by several seminars at this year's AES. On Friday, the Center Channel Challenge convened with a trio of recording engineers moderated by DTS's Jeff Levison.

While some may disagree, it would seem that both competing high-rez audio formats, SACD and DVD-Audio, have stalled in the marketplace. Why do you think this is?