LATEST ADDITIONS

Audiophiles and classical music lovers often risk falling into a repertorial rut. The classical standards are constantly being rerecorded&mdash;often to the point of needless repetition. How many versions of Mendelssohn's "Italian" Symphony or Ravel's <I>Bolero</I> do you really need? Rather than fill up your shelves with recordings of the same tired compositions, I suggest you look into some of these more obscure pieces&mdash;all of them perfect for playing on the first day of April. Below, a list of fresh "basics" that any good audiophile should own:

Next to join the online ATRAC parade, <A HREF="http://www.music.warnerbros.com/">Warner Music Group</A> announced last week that it has agreed to license the ATRAC3 audio compression technology from <A HREF="http://www.sony.co.jp/">Sony</A&gt;, for use in the electronic distribution of music. Warner says it expects to launch its electronic distribution business during the second half of 2000, using ATRAC3 on a non-exclusive basis.

For <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//finetunes/214/">"Fine Tunes" #17</A>, Jonathan Scull presents readers with the ultimate bachelor-pad mod for speaker stands: shiny black trash bags. More important, Scull investigates why we even try these things in the first place.

This question is an attempt to quickly take the pulse of audiophile music tastes this month: What music have you just bought?

The legal molasses in which <A HREF="http://www.mp3.com/">MP3.com</A&gt; is mired got thicker and deeper in mid-March, when MPL Communications launched a lawsuit against the Internet music company. MPL, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney's publishing house, joined the attack begun months ago by the <A HREF="http://www.riaa.com/">Recording Industries Association of America</A>. McCartney's firm filed suit in a New York US District Court against the San Diego&ndash;based startup over copyrights on intellectual properties owned by MPL, whose catalog includes McCartney's solo work, as well as the works of Buddy Holly, Hoagy Carmichael, Sammy Cahn, and other songwriters and performers. MPL was joined in the suit by Peer International, which owns the work of the late Latina star Selena.

For <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//finetunes/212/">"Fine Tunes" #16</A>, Jonathan Scull offers sage advice on handling the often ephemeral problem of microphonics in audio systems. "So here I am expounding on the tendency of audio components&mdash;especially tubes, capacitors, and resistors&mdash;to become microphonic, and you're wondering how you can find out if there's any of that shakin' goin' on in your system. And <I>you</I> want to do it easily and for next to nothing," he sez. The solutions await.

When <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/showvote.cgi?135">polled</A&gt; earlier this month, <I>Stereophile</I>'s online readers were split on the topic of DVD-Audio's surround capabilities: 30% expressed interest, but an equal number were not so thrilled with the idea. While the release of the official high-resolution DVD-A format is still several months away, some record labels have been quick to capitalize on the ability of current DVD players to play compressed AC3- and DTS-encoded audio DVDs, in the hopes of developing a market for a lower-fidelity surround-sound format.