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Michael Fremer almost grasps upsampling when he looks into the dCS">http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/814/">dCS Verdi SACD transport, Purcell D/D converter, and Elgar Plus D/A converter. MF notes, "Explaining what you get for your $34k is somewhat easier than explaining upsampling, but due to the dCS gear's enormous flexibility and multitude of features, it's not that much easier."

The music industry is facing its toughest business climate in recent memory, and slow sales are hurting not only the record labels, but music retailers as well. In the face of continuing sales declines, store closings, mergers and consolidations, layoffs, and seemingly intractable digital distribution issues, the industry came together last month for its annual National">http://www.narm.com">National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) convention and trade show in Orlando, FL.

Webcasters will pay a new royalty rate to the recording industry, as of April 3.

Back in 1996, Martin Colloms reviewed the Krell">http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/809/">Krell KAV-300i integrated amplifier, asking, "Is Krell risking its reputation?" He needn't have worried, as the 300i has gone on to become a popular audiophile classic.

The DVD-Audio format's been around for a couple of years, but simultaneous DVD-A and CD releases of new music have been few and far between. Warner Brothers is hoping to improve on that record with the upcoming album from Fleetwood Mac, Say You Will.

"Rarely, if ever, can this densely written sonata have been presented so lucidly with each note precisely in place...the dramatic and lyrical aspects were never slighted or taken for granted."
—Peter G. Davis, writing in the New York Times about Robert Silverman's New York debut in 1978, when he performed the Liszt B-Minor Piano Sonata in Alice Tully Hall.

The music industry has taken its war against piracy into a new realm.

Alleged unauthorized copying of compact discs will cost Technicolor, Inc. approximately $2.3 million. On March 26, the Southern California disc replicator agreed to settle a casehttp://www.stereophile.com/news/11309/">case; brought against it last year by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), in which the RIAA charged that workers at one of Technicolor's disc plants had made and distributed batches of illegal copies. The total of the settlement was less than 10% of the amount originally sought by the RIAA.

Job cutbacks are one inevitable result of sustained sales declines. In late March, the ailing music industry began to shed excess workers in an effort to reach profitability, with Sony">http://www.sonymusic.com">Sony Music and Bertelsmann">http://www.bmg.com">Bertelsmann Music Group announcing significant reductions in their workforces.

Last year in late October, Universal Music Group finally announcedhttp://www.stereophile.com/news/11476/">announced; its first set of SACD titles and the high-rez format's supporters jumped for joy. Then, at the January 2003 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Universal stood on the podium next to Sony and announced several key SACD releases from the Police, Peter Gabriel, and others.