LATEST ADDITIONS

Satellite radio got a boost toward wider market acceptance on February 16, when <A HREF="http://www.siriusradio.com/">Sirius Satellite Radio</A> and <A HREF="http://www.xmradio.com/">XM Satellite Radio</A> announced an agreement to develop a unified standard for satellite radios. The current batch of satellite receivers can pick up transmissions from one of the providers, but not both. The next generation of receivers will expand the technology's reach by enabling reception of both companies' broadcasts.

This spring, downloadable digital music from <A HREF="http://www.emigroup.com/">EMI</A&gt; may begin popping up everywhere, if a new arrangement with <A HREF="http://www.supertracks.com/">Supertracks</A&gt; goes as planned. The two companies have created what they believe is a secure system for downloading music to computers, portable players, and to CD burners at kiosks in shopping malls. The news follows by only a couple of weeks an announcement that <A HREF="http://www.warnermusic.com/">Warner Music</A> and EMI will merge their operations under the larger umbrella of AOL Time Warner.

DVD-Audio has kept a low profile since its misfired "launch" late last year (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10620/">previous story</A>), but has popped up again at this week's Audio Engineering Society Convention (<A HREF="http://www.aes.org">AES</A&gt;) in Paris. <A HREF="http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/">Pioneer</A&gt; is demonstrating its latest generation of universal DVD players, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10633/">recently released in Japan</A>, using a new DVD-Audio disc, some of the contents of which were encoded using Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP) technology to enable high-resolution surround sound.

The best defense is sometimes a good offense. <A HREF="http://www.mp3.com/">MP3.com</A&gt; has taken that old advice to heart by counter-suing the <A HREF="http://www.riaa.com/">Recording Industries Association of America</A> for what it calls "unfair business practices." On Monday, February 7, MP3.com filed a complaint against the music-industry organization in San Diego Superior Court, alleging that the RIAA and its president, Hilary Rosen, have conspired to undermine the Internet music company's stock price by promulgating information to stock analysts just prior to suing for copyright infringement.

High-definition audio is on its way to a DVD player near you. <A HREF="http://www.hdcd.com/">Pacific Microsonics</A> has introduced a new High Definition Compatible Disc chip, the PMD-200, for the next generation of CD and DVD players. The device is a "feature-rich audio IC that provides HDCD processing for both the CD and DVD formats," according to a February 11 company press release.

Kal Rubinson gets right to the point: "I am biased: On very little evidence, I remain convinced that, in the near future, high-quality music reproduction will be multichannel." The <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/201/">Meridian Digital Theatre surround-sound music system</A> is therefore a product that puts Kal's vision to the test. Kal details the system, which consists of two DSP6000 front L/R speakers, one DSP6000C center-channel speaker, two DSP5000 speakers used for surround, the Reference 800 DVD/CD player, and the Reference 861 System Controller. But does the Meridian system live up to his expectations regarding the potential of surround-sound for music?

It would seem almost reasonable to imagine that your next stereo receiver or preamp could have an "intel inside" sticker on the front. Last week, software company <A HREF="http://www.be.com">Be</A&gt; made several announcements that it hopes will not only bring such a future to consumers, but also place itself at the center of the Internet-connected home-entertainment equipment market.