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CD audio recorders are becoming affordable and more available. Philips&#039">http://www.philips.com/">Philips' CDR880 (reviewed by Wes Phillips in the current issue of Stereophile) will be in dealers' showrooms soon at a suggested retail price of $649. Pioneerhttp://pioneerelectronics.com/">Pioneer; will also have an inexpensive recorder on the market---the PD-R555RW, which will reportedly sell for $599. These two---and others that will no doubt follow---are welcome relief from the four-figure machines that have dominated the recordable audio CD niche.

Following the highly successful release of three Beatles outtakes sets a few years back, Capitol">http://www.capitolrecords.com/">Capitol Records announced last week that another set of unreleased recordings, this time from former Beatle John Lennon, will hit stores November 3. The four-disc set will include over 100 home recordings, studio outtakes, and other works never released in public. Titled The John Lennon Anthology, the set was put together with help from Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, and their son Sean Lennon. Also included will be 60 pages of notes, including art, writings, and photos.

Hachette Filipacchi Magazines (HFM) announced last week that two of its titles, Stereo Review and Video magazines, would be merged to form a new magazine titled Stereo Review's Sound & Vision. According to the statement, the new title will be launched in February 1999, with the premiere issue to coincide with next year's Consumer Electronics Show.

The autumn months will be hectic ones for the audio industry, with many gatherings vying for the attention of engineers, marketing executives, and journalists. Here are but a few of the coming events:

In a recent bake-off, online retailer CDnowhttp://www.cdnow.com">CDnow; was named top music banana by the New York consulting firm eMarketerhttp://www.emarketer.com/">eMarketer;. Although placing further down the list based on price alone, CDnow gained the highest overall score in an averaging of the rankings of six criteria. Rated on a scale of 1 to 5, these were: Selection, Price, Service, Usability, Presentation, and Features.

Distressed Carver">http://www.carver.com/">Carver Corporation announced August 31 that founder Bob Carver has signed a letter of intent to return as chairman and CEO of the company he founded 20 years ago. The letter also spells out conditions for a possible merger of Carver and Sunfire">http://www.sunfire.com/">Sunfire Corporation as early as 18 months from now. Sunfire, manufacturer of the highly regarded Sunfire power amplifiers, is Bob Carver's privately held company.

It wasn't easy building the perfect audio system---endless hours spent choosing synergistic components, and working that impossible room to its greatest advantage. Why not share the struggle, the rewards, and the knowledge gained by sending information about your audio environment to us here at Stereophile?

Several weeks ago, we reportedhttp://www.stereophile.com/news/10211/">reported; on the revival of McCormack Audio by Bill Conrad and Lew Johnson, who purchased the company's assets at an auction in Southern California. This past week, McCormack Audio has announced that one of the original co-founders, Steve McCormack, has rejoined the company as Director of Research and Development. McCormack had worked at the company from its inception in 1982 until 1996.

Recordable CD machines are nothing new these days, especially those aimed at the PC market. Those machines that find their way into Desktop PCs can end up doing everything from backing up corporate financial data to mastering CD-ROM titles. Many are used for recording music CDs as well, and so a new CD-Recorder from Smart">http://www.smartandfriendly.com">Smart and Friendly has a couple of features thrown in just to excite the audio folk.

In anticipation of the upcoming 1.0 DVD-Audio specification (see previous">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10236/">previous article), Sonic">http://www.sonic.com/">Sonic Solutions and Warner">http://www.warnerbros.com/frame_moz3_day.html">Warner Music Group wasted no time in announcing their intent to collaborate in creating new multichannel high-density recordings to showcase the new format. Warner was one of the first major labels to deliver music via CD, and Warner's video division has never been shy in their support of Open-DVD for video. So it comes as no surprise that they're one of the first major music houses out of the gate for the audio version of DVD.