LATEST ADDITIONS

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."

In his review of the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/167/">SimAudio Moon P-5 preamplifier and W-5 power amplifier</A>, Kal Rubinson wrote, "something about their aesthetics appealed to me: Canadian ruggedness coupled with a decidedly French panache. I remember that those attributes also characterized the demo's sound, although I can't recall the speakers or the sources involved. At succeeding shows, it gradually dawned on me that the Moon components were the fixed elements in a succession of impressive demos."

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.

The Andra, <I>Stereophile</I>'s 1997 Product of the Year, will soon be back. So will the Rosa, the Fontaine, the Isabel, and the Ivy Reference&mdash;in fact, the full line of <A HREF="http://www.egglestonworks.com/">EgglestonWorks</A&gt; loudspeakers will be shipping soon to dealers, now that the company has been rescued from extinction. EgglestonWorks had been in legal limbo for most of the year as creditors wrangled over its future.

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.

DVD-Audio has been getting a lot of press and comments from consumers lately&mdash;as in "Where <I>is</I> it?" As we reported back in August, the first players from <A HREF="http://www.panasonic.com">Panasonic</A&gt; were slated to appear last month (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10509/">previous story</A>). But, as with all things worth waiting for, better late than never.