LATEST ADDITIONS

Last week, the <A HREF="http://www.cemacity.org">Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association</A> (CEMA) announced its forecast that Internet sales of traditional consumer technologies to online households should reach at least $14 billion by 2002, representing 13% of total industry volume. CEMA also revealed that <A HREF="http://www.eBrain.org">consumer research</A> shows interest in buying consumer technologies online should grow by at least 135% in the next two years. The study found that the vast majority of online shoppers opt to consummate the purchase online instead of at a retail store because of price.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.twtr.com">Tweeter Home Entertainment Group, Inc.</A> announced that the company has reached an agreement in principle to acquire DOW Stereo/Video, Inc., located in San Diego, California. DOW is a nine-store specialty consumer-electronics retailer with sales of approximately $38 million, and has been in business in the San Diego market for over 30 years. The transaction is expected to be completed on or about July 1, 1999. Tweeter says it will pay approximately $5.5 million for the company excluding acquisition costs, and has the option of paying approximately $500,000 of the purchase price in Tweeter common stock.

One of the hang-ups preventing DVD-Audio from moving forward is the fear that high-quality digital signals make piracy too easy. As a result, the format will likely incorporate various copy-protection schemes---possibly including watermarking. Does this matter to you?

Sometimes you have to sweat the details, sometimes they just fall in your lap. Take Victor Tiscareno. Victor's company, AudioPrism, has been making electronics, accessories, and power-conditioning products for quite some time. While he was visiting and installing a pair of his Mana Reference tube amplifiers for an upcoming review, Victor and I got to talking about power---the kind that comes out of the wall. Victor studied electrical engineering and is very au courant in such matters. During these ruminations he shared with me a recipe for what he calls The Poor Man's Dedicated Line.

Following the Sony/Philips jump from the starting line with Wednesday's <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10445/">SACD announcements</A>, the DVD-Audio camp quickly came up to speed at the HI-FI '99 press luncheon with their plans for players and discs to appear this fall. First up at the podium was Jordan Rost from the Warner Music Group. Contrasts with the SACD position were established from the start when Rost made it obvious that, unlike SACD, DVD-Audio seeks to embrace not only high-end audio, but also various forms of video, and even Internet interactivity. Rost even went so far as to say that DVD-Audio discs could "play on CD players if a hybrid disc is feasible and desired," thus possibly deflating Sony's insistence that backward-compatibility is what sets SACD apart.

<I>Who knows not Circe,<BR>The daughter of the Sun, whose charmed cup<BR>Whoever tasted, lost his upright shape,<BR>And downward fell into a groveling swine?</I><BR>&mdash;John Milton, <I>Comus</I>

<B>BILL LLOYD: <I>Standing on the Shoulders of Giants</I></B><BR> Koch LOC-CD-8035 (CD). 1999. Bill Lloyd, Scott Baggett, prods., engs.; Brad Jones, prod.; Robin Eaton, Marshall Crenshaw, engs. AAD? TT: 56:46<BR> Performance <B>****?</B><BR> Sonics <B>****</B>