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What is the best environment in which to demonstrate and enjoy high-quality audio gear? According to Richard Rives Bird, founder and president of Rives">http://www.rivesaudio.com">Rives Audio, the answer is simple: an acoustically engineered room.

The 2007 edition of the Stereophile Buyer's Guide is now available! Absolutely bursting with technical specifications for more than 5000 audio components, the Buyer's Guide will help make your music sound better than ever. Honest.

MusicGiantshttp://musicgiants.com/">MusicGiants;, which bills itself as "the leader in HD music downloads," announced November 7 an agreement with Intesethttp://www.inteset.com/cnsmr/Products/">Inteset;, which manufacturers high-end media servers and advanced extender systems.

On November 7, Dr. Mead C. Killion, founder and president of Etymotic Research, invited Stereophile to experience the company's newest in-the-ear high-fidelity earphone, the ety-8. What was so special about these half-ounce 'phones? No wires—the ety-8's are the industry's first and only in-the-ear, high-accuracy, noise-exclusion earphones.

One of the best-sounding recordings I've heard in the last few years is Handel's Messiah performed by Jeffrey Thomas and the American Bach Soloists (Delos DE-3360 CD). The sound is spectacularly natural, with realistic dynamics and a wonderful sense of space. If you haven't heard it, I recommend it highly—but Millennia">http://www.mil-media.com/homepage.shtml">Millennia Music & Media Systems is now offering you a chance to experience the recording on a completely different level.

On Friday, November 3, The Register published an interviewhttp://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/03/peter_jenner/">interview; with Peter Jenner, formerly manager of Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett, T. Rex, The Clash, Ian Drury, and Disposable Heroes, as well as Billy Bragg's current manager. The interview was a challenging (and profane) music insider's rant on a variety of subjects ranging from how the dollar download model killed the record store to proposals for a blanket, DRM-free digital music license that would permit consumers to use the music they purchase however they wish.

As we reported">http://stereophile.com/news/101606advanced/">reported previously, on Saturday, November 11, retailer Advanced Audio will celebrate its 20^th anniversary with "an open format seminar" at the Sheraton Tacoma Hotel (1320 Broadway Plaza, Tacoma, WA 98402. Tel: (253) 572-3200). Seminar participants will include Richard Vandersteen of Vandersteen Audio; Steve Silberman, Ayre Acoustics's national sales manager; Joe Harley, renowned recording producer and AudioQuest vice-president; Shane Buettner, technical editor of Ultimate AV; and Wes Phillips, a senior editor at Stereophile.

One cliché that never loses its aptness is "end of an era." And it certainly applies to the passing on October 29 of SME’s founder, Alastair Robertson-Aikman. While there remain a handful of survivors from the original "golden age" of audio, few of them were still active in 2006. AR-A, as he was known to friends and staff, wasn’t simply still active: he was still tweaking his sound system and planning new products.

On Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson's Swiss Radio Days, Vol.15: JATP Lausanne 1953 (TCB 02152), the performances are so extraordinary that only the music itself can fully tell the tale.

Kalman Rubinson enthused over JL Audio's Fathom f113 powered subwoofer in his November "Music in the Round" column. Unfortunately, brainfade on my part when I wrote the text for the cover of that issue of Stereophile meant that the subwoofer was credited to "JL Labs." And in all the proof-reading that goes on while an issue of the magazine is being prepared, we all noted a) that the words "JL Labs" were both spelled correctly on the cover and b) that the words "JL Audio" were also spelled correctly on the contents page and all the way through Kals's column.