LATEST ADDITIONS

People love to make their own compilation recordings. That fact helped make the cassette deck the most successful audio format of all time, and it is driving sales of CD recorders, a product category new to most consumers. As <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10533/">predicted</A&gt; last summer, CD recorders have become one of the hottest niches in consumer audio, exceeding MiniDisc machines in total sales dollars. Sales are brisk despite the fact that CD recorders are among the priciest components on the market, ranging from $500 to $600. MiniDisc recorders for home use are priced at about $250 and up.

Rarely have I anticipated the arrival of a review component as I did the Sony SCD-1 Super Audio CD player. I'd first heard the machine itself with the enthusiastic audiophile hordes at Chicago's HI-FI '99. I'd also been lucky enough to enjoy a few of the Direct Stream Digital-encoded recordings Tom Jung had made for DMP right off the hard drives of a prototype DSD processor via Ed Meitner electronics. (See my interview with Jung elsewhere in this issue.)

Reader Samo Jecnik, from Ljubljana, Slovenia, has a simple question for audiophiles: "I'd like to know how much time per week <I>Stereophile</I> readers <I>listen</I> to the music on their <I>main</I> systems. I mean the time they're sitting in the sweet spot."

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.burr-brown.com">Burr-Brown Corporation</A> announced the PCM1737, a 24-bit, 192kHz-sampling delta-sigma digital-to-analog converter (DAC) that the company says is designed for consumer audio applications. According to a press release, Burr-Brown states that "the PCM1737's excellent price and performance is specifically targeted toward consumer audio applications such as DVD/CD players, A/V receivers, HDTV systems, and car audio applications."

In a move that it says is designed to position it for "continued growth and leadership in the consumer electronics field," the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association (CEMA) unveiled last week its new incarnation: the <A HREF="http://www.cemacity.org">Consumer Electronics Association</A> (CEA). The announcement comes on the heels of a decision, made earlier this week by the Board of Governors of the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA), to allow separate incorporation for its sector associations.

FM stereo, introduced in 1961, was the last great leap ahead in commercial radio. That was 38 years ago, an eternity in technological time. Digital audio broadcasting (DAB) techniques are capable of overcoming many of the limitations of analog broadcasting, including multipath distortion. Such systems are already in place in Europe and Canada, so why not in the United States?

For the first time in more than 10 years, individual investors have a chance to own a piece of one of the oldest and most recognized names in the American electronics industry. As of November 1, <A HREF="http://www.rca.com/">RCA</A&gt; officially came back on the stock market, when parent company Thomson Multimedia made a successful initial public offering of 21 million shares. The stock (NYSE: TMS) debuted at $22.62 per share and closed Friday, November 5 at $29.25.