LATEST ADDITIONS

The <A HREF="http://www.cemacity.org">Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association</A>'s recently released <A HREF="http://www.cemacity.org/gazette/files/cempub.htm"><I>U.S. Consumer Electronics Industry Today</I></A> indicates a healthy glow on the cheeks of specialty audio. US exports of component audio products amounted to $2.12 billion in 1997, an increase of 12% over the previous year's total of $1.89 billion. 1997's total represents a 25% increase over 1995, when almost $1.7 billion in separate audio products went out of the country. The figures are compiled by CEMA from US Department of Commerce figures.

A key benefit of working with <I>Stereophile</I> is enjoying the expertise of fellow audio nerds. After the HI-FI Show just held in Los Angeles, Jonathan Scull and Kathleen Benveniste spent a week riding up the California Coast and paid us each a visit.

For the last few months, random postings kept appearing on internet newsgroups and in my e-mail box: "Anybody know what happened to Counterpoint?" At last count there were 10,000 Counterpoint preamps, power amps, and loudspeakers fanned out across the planet, some dating back to 1977, when the company launched its first product: the SA-1 tube preamp, designed by Ed Semanko.

Audio technology marches on, but reader Dave Brown wonders: Does it always increase your enjoyment of music without decreasing your bank account?

On June 23, <A HREF="http://www.burr-brown.com/">Burr-Brown Corp.</A> announced the PCM1728 digital-to-analog converter (DAC), designed for consumer and professional audio applications.

It's no secret that <A HREF="http://www.dolby.com">Dolby Laboratories</A> doesn't aim its audio compression technologies at the high-end consumer audio market. After all, Dolby excels at finding ways to get maximum performance out of limited-bandwidth environments such as the audio cassette, or the space alloted for 5.1-channel soundtracks on DVDs.

In a move that is likely to push record labels into the uncharted territory of direct sales, <A HREF="http://www.bmg.com">BMG</A&gt; has announced its intention to add in-house sales to its network of music sites. "BMG will be moving in the fall to its own fulfillment capability because of the demands of consumers," said senior vice president Scott Dinsdale at the Business Online 98 conference in San Francisco last week.