LATEST ADDITIONS

Whenever we <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/showvote.cgi?168">run a poll</A> asking readers what record companies can do to reduce piracy, one of the most common gripes is that CD prices are too high. Apparently the <A HREF="http://www.narm.com/">National Association of Recording Merchandisers</A> (NARM) and major music retailers across the country agree. They also are looking for better-sounding formats to goose sales.

With SACD and DVD-Audio rumbling off in the distance, is the high-end CD player dead? Michael Fremer takes a listen to the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/433/">Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 3D CD player</A> and reports that the company decided it was "better to concentrate efforts on trying to optimize the sound of the two billion CDs already in play than divert company resources into developing technology and products aimed at an uncertain digital future and an unsettled customer base."

The <A HREF="http://www.riaa.com">Recording Industry Association of America</A> (RIAA) is trying to distance itself from an attempt earlier this month to insert language into a broad anti-terrorism bill that would have given the organization's members the right to hack into computers operated by Internet music sites&mdash;as well as those owned by private individuals&mdash;to find and delete pirated recordings. The wording suggested by the RIAA would have excluded copyright holders from criminal charges for causing damage to computers in the effort to control piracy.

<A HREF="http://www.microsoft.com">Microsoft</A>'s confident foray into the world of online entertainment didn't last long. On October 19, the Redmond, WA technology giant admitted that an unknown hacker had successfully circumvented the company's vaunted anti-piracy software.

For the entertainment industry, every perceived threat produces an overblown reaction. After a protracted and very public struggle, file-sharing upstart Napster was cowed into submission; MP3.com's "personal music library" was rendered ineffective through a combination of legal pressure and co-option; other Internet music experiments are threatened with lawsuits too costly to contest.

<I>Screeeeeeech, thump, thump, vroooooom...</I>

What's next for you? Your last CD player? Your first SACD player? DVD-Audio? Looking forward to multichannel music? Still satisfied with two-channel stereo? Maybe you're waiting for an affordable combination SACD/DVD-A multichannel player, or for the format feud to shake out and leave a clear winner. So many options, so much excitement, so little software.