LATEST ADDITIONS

From the March 2004 issue, John Atkinson finally gets to listen to the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/304sonus">Sonus Faber Cremona loudspeaker</A> and explains, "it took rather longer than I had expected to set the Cremonas up in my listening room. But, like everything worth experiencing, the wait was worth it."

Audiophiles interested in experimenting with upconverting the digital data on their CDs to higher resolutions will find a recent announcement from the Netherlands of interest. Dutch company <A HREF="http://www.eximius.nl">Eximius</A&gt; revealed last week a new product tagged "DVD+Audio Creator" for converting CDs to either upsampled PCM or compressed MP2 files.

<B>IRON AND WINE: <I>Our Endless Numbered Days</I></B><BR>
Sub Pop 630 (CD). 2004. Sam Beam, Brian Deck, prods., engs. AAD? TT: 44:49<BR>
Performance <B>****</B><BR>
Sonics <B>****</B>

It's a beautiful drive, considering you're on a freeway. You take I-25 north out of Albuquerque, Sandia Peak to your right and the Jemez Caldera and Mount Taylor dimly visible in the distance to your left. As you broach La Bajada hill south of Santa Fe, the Sangre de Cristo range—the "Blood of Christ Mountains" described by Paul Simon in "Hearts & Bones"—appears before your windshield. You take the Old Pecos Trail exit to the City Different, but before you reach town you bear to the left, then take another left opposite St. Vincent Hospital. There, in a cul-de-sac, you peer up at the street sign: "Stereophile Way," it says (footnote 1). "Not just a street, but a philosophy," I kidded Larry Archibald when the city told him that he could name the road where the magazine's headquarters would one day be situated.

"The Sonus Faber Cremona is the finest cabinet-built speaker I have heard for under $10,000/pair," wrote the usually reticent Sam Tellig in the January 2003 <I>Stereophile</I>. "<I>Bravissimo...Molto, molto bene</I>" he added to his paean of praise for the Italian speaker manufacturer's founder and chief engineer, Franco Serblin.

Apple Computer is riding a wave that shows no sign of breaking.

Bits is bits? In the December 1990 issue, John Atkinson explored in <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/reference/1290jitter">"Jitter, Bits, & Sound Quality"</A> why digital audio turns out to be a complicated process. He writes, "As my violin teacher used to say, 'The right note in the wrong place is the wrong note.'" And so it is with digital data, as JA explains in this groundbreaking report.