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On May 30, Apple officially launched iTunes Plus, billed as "DRM-free music tracks featuring high-quality 256kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings." The initial material available from the iTunes Plus section of the iTunes Media Store is, for the moment, limited to EMI artists, although other labels have announced pending deals with Apple. The "improved" songs sell for $1.29 rather than the standard 99¢.

McIntosh Laboratory announced its $6000 MS750 music server on May 30. The second music server in McIntosh's line, the MS750 incorporates a 750GB hard drive and integrated Web interface capabilities. McIntosh estimates that the MS750 is capable of storing 2700 CDs at full resolution, or about 12,000 songs.

The Home">http://blog.stereophile.com/he2007/">Home Entertainment Show 2007 held May 11—13, 2007, at the Grand Hyatt New York Hotel in New York City, will be remembered by exhibitors, consumers, and visiting media as a well-attended showcase of some of the finest home-entertainment products available.

On May 23, Sonoshttp://www.sonos.com/">Sonos; announced the release of Sonos Software v 2.2, which adds Pandora's">http://www.pandora.com/">Pandora's personalized Internet radio service to Sonos' wireless multi-room music systems.

When we last heardhttp://stereophile.com/news/042307linn/">heard; from Linn, The Scotsman reported layoffs, restructuring, and a hoped-for resurgence. On May 25, we received a note from Ivor">http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/1101ivor/">Ivor S. Tiefenbrun, Linn's founder, that he had returned to the positions of chairman and managing director, after an absence of four or five years due to serious health problems, thanks to new medications that have "returned [him] to fitness and restored energy levels."

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has taken its first giant steps into the digital domain. Hard on the heels of launching the orchestra's new in-house CD label, CSO Resound, it has announced a partnership with digital distributor IODA that will make CSO Resound recordings available for download via iTunes, Yahoo! Music, Rhapsody, Napster, Verizon, Sprint, and other online retailers.

It's not that we're jaded, but most mornings as we open the day's press releases, we manage to curb our enthusiasm as we read of the breakthroughs du jour. Yet, when we read that Steinway & Sons and Peter Lyngdorf had collaborated (as Steinway Lyngdorf) on a $150,000 "Steinway & Sons Model-D Music System," we knew we had to hear it.

On May 10, members of several pro audio Internet bulletin boards read the following post from Gary Margolis: "It is with great sadness that I inform you that John Eargle, one of the finest audio engineers and teachers it's been my privilege to know, has passed away.

On May 16, Amazon.com announced that it would launch an online digital music store "later this year" offering "millions of songs in the DRM-free MP3 format from more than 12,000 record labels." EMI, which recently announced that it would partner with the iTunes Media Store to release premium DRM-free MP3 downloads there, "is the latest addition to the store." Amazon claims that every song and album in the Amazon.com digital music store will be available exclusively as unfettered MP3 files.

On May 10, Tweeter Home Entertainment Group announced that it has insufficient working capital to cover its long- and short-term costs and may have to consider filing for Chapter 11. The immediate cause of the shortfall is the cost of closing 49 stores and two distribution centers. This Week in Consumer Electronics reported specifically that lump sum payments to lease-holding landlords was a contributory factor.