LATEST ADDITIONS

I've heard my share of Krells, Levinsons, Rowlands, and the like in other people's systems&mdash;expensive solid-state amplifiers are not my usual beat. With the exception of an inexpensive Adcom a few years back, for more than a decade I've owned and reviewed only tube amps. In fact, until the $7500 Ayre Acoustics V-1 showed up, I'd not had one in my system. Similarly, I'd had only tube <I>pre</I>amps until I reviewed the Ayre K-3, which so impressed me that I asked to hear the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/609/">more expensive K-1</A>&mdash;and ended up buying it.

<I>"Gotta get my hands on these!"</I>

While we're on the topic of high-end audio e-commerce, have you tried your hand at the online market in <I>used</I> audio equipment?

Country music reached the peak of its popularity six years ago, when it claimed 18.7% of the recorded-music audience. Since then, it has steadily declined to its present 14.1%, according to the <A HREF="http://www.riaa.com/">Recording Industry Association of America</A>'s 1998 Consumer Profile. Reasons for the decline include the increasing crossover of country stars into pop and rock styles, a phenomenon that has broadened many artists' reach and made acts like Garth Brooks and Shania Twain household names among folks who may not previously have paid much attention to country. Crossing over, unfortunately, also dilutes the support of traditional music fans. Apart from the twang in the vocals, much current "country" music sounds amazingly like the rock and pop of 10-15 years ago.

It's been a busy week for Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) pioneers <A HREF="http://www.lucent.com">Lucent Digital Radio</A>. (See <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10463/">previous report</A>.) The company has announced that a new entity, <A HREF="http://www.lucent.com/ldr">Lucent Digital Radio, Inc.</A>, has been created as a result of an investment by Pequot Capital Management. The new company will be owned by Pequot Capital investors and Lucent Technologies, which will hold a majority ownership stake. Lucent says it will continue to support the new venture and provide ongoing access to research from the company's Bell Labs research and development unit.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.burr-brown.com">Burr-Brown Corporation</A> announced the development of the DSD1700, which the company says is its first Direct Stream Digital (DSD) audio digital-to-analog converter. According to Burr-Brown, the converter is designed for Sony's DSD technology, which is used in Super Audio CD players, professional DSD processors, and DSD mixing consoles.

The new DV-09 is Pioneer's first DVD player in its Elite line. More than simply an upscale version of a standard Pioneer DVD player, the DV-09 was built from the ground up to be a flagship product. It's also the first DVD player I've seen to have been certified under THX's DVD-player certification program (see sidebar, "THX DVD Players").