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A move by RealNetworks to cut the umbilical cord between Apple's iPod and the company's iTunes Music Store has raised the ire of some execs in Cupertino. The computer pioneer is threatening legal and technical retaliation against its Seattle rival in the wake of a late July launch of a digital music technology called Harmony that enables the iPod to work with downloads from RealNetworks' music store.

From its origins as an obscure off-Broadway novelty act, Blue">http://www.blueman.com">Blue Man Group has grown to monster proportions, with authorized spinoffs performing in major cities throughout the world. The group is a permanent attraction in Las Vegas.

The advent of ubiquitous online digital audio file availability, not to mention a growing number of ways to effectively use a computer to organize and store a media library, has prompted futurists to begin declaring this the eve of the "digital den" era.

Audiophile's">http://www.stereophile.com/news/072604journey/">Audiophile's Journey continues.

Back in June of 1992, Lewis Lipnick auditioned one of the era's benchmark products, the Cello">http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/692cello">Cello Palette Preamplifier. LL comments, "The Palette Preamplifier gives the listener a glimpse of what performers experience every day on stage: total immersion in the music."

John Atkinson wires up a pair of Gershman">http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/704gershman">Gershman Acoustics Opera Sauvage loudspeakers, noting, "'Mellow' was the word I used to describe my first impression of the Opera Sauvage's balance, and nothing I experienced throughout my auditioning persuaded me that that impression was mistaken."

iTunes is proving every day that some music fans love to procure music through the Internet. On the other hand, audiophiles often complainhttp://cgi.stereophile.com/cgi-bin/showvote.cgi?310">complain; about the poor sound of the "CD quality" compressed files that Apple and others offer for download at similar prices to those of their uncompressed CD counterparts.

Noted jazz recording engineer David Baker died unexpectedly on July 14 in Rochester, NY.

Lexington, KY–based Thiel">www.thielaudio.com">Thiel Audio has announced a new line of SmartSub subwoofers, "designed as the ultimate solution for bass management and reproduction in home theater and music sound systems." The line includes the SS1, SS2, SS3, and SS4 subwoofers, the SmartSub Integrator, and the PX02 and PX05 Passive Crossovers, a group of products said "to offer the most seamless and realistic low frequency reproduction possible." Company president Kathy Gornik describes the new line as "the world's first intelligent subwoofers."

Like most Americans, US audiophiles have little idea how difficult life can be for people in other countries. Imagine facing official censure for possessing some innocuous pop music, or taking 12 years to accumulate the complete works of one of your favorite rock groups. That was life in the old Soviet Union for Stereophile colleague Leonid Korostyshevski, who flew to Istanbul from Moscow on short notice, so we could spend a few days together prior to my embarking on a sailing trip in the eastern Mediterranean. The visit cemented a long-distance friendship established through numberless emails. It was also an in-depth education.