LATEST ADDITIONS

Dynaudio's $2399/pair Contour 1.3 Mk.II follows on from the Mk.I, which grabbed Russ Novak's enthusiastic attention in November 1996 (Vol.19 No.11). Because a full description was included in the original review, I will only touch briefly on the differences between the original version and the sample reviewed this month. A Special Edition of the Contour 1.3 is also available for $3499/pair. Sam Tellig's comments on the sound of this loudspeaker appeared in the December 1999 <I>Stereophile</I> and are included at the end of this review.

This week's <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/soapbox.shtml">Soapbox</A&gt; has Martin Bruczkowski pondering how much power is being wasted by audiophiles who leave large systems on 24/7. What are <I>your</I> power habits?

Real businesses are moving into territory explored by the upstarts. On August 2, <A HREF="http://www.umusic.com/">Universal Music Group</A>, the world's largest record label, announced that it will begin offering, on a trial basis, digital downloads of recordings from its massive catalog. The experiment is scheduled to begin this week, with an initial offering of about 60 songs from artists in several genres, including operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti, jazz guitarist George Benson, and pop band Blink 182.

Longtime audiophiles no doubt remember Hafler for their early amp and preamp kits, which offered excellent value for the money. The company soon dropped the kits, but continued production with a complete line of popular amps and preamps throughout the '80s and early '90s, only to hit hard times as the audio recession kicked in.

In his review of the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/253/">Sharp SM-SX100 digital integrated amplifier</A>, Michael Fremer asks: "why would a sharp mind offer a $15,000 integrated <I>digital</I> amplifier to a reviewer who has been characterized in the audio press as the 'self-proclaimed Analog Messiah' and a 'hyper-Luddite'?" Would Fremer actually cotton to a digitized vinyl recording? Read Fremer's report for the startling conclusion.

We all have to start somewhere. What would <I>you</I> recommend to someone assembling a first audio system, and how much would it cost?

The recent <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10809/">struggle</A&gt; between the RIAA and Napster may seem like a distant battle rumbling off in some foreign realm, far removed from most audiophiles: about once a week we get e-mails asking why a high-end audio website should even cover such stuff.