Sean O'Hagan makes some mix tapes and laments the lost art of the sleeve note.

We reported in 2005 on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/082205riaa/">lawsuit against Patricia Santangelo</A> and her suit in response to the trade group's allegations that she had participated in peer-to-peer file sharing. The record companies dropped their legal actions against Ms. Santangelo in December 2006, instead deciding to charge two of her children, Robert (16) and Michelle (20), with downloading songs from Kazaa.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has issued a <A HREF="http://www.ce.org/shared_files/edm/2007/PolicyPapers/HomeRecording.pdf"… paper</A> on consumer recording rights, which it expects to be a "key issue in 2007." The CEA's position, in brief: "We urge Congress to refrain from limiting fair use and encourage market-based solutions to home recording and digital rights management issues."

California company Now Hear This (NHT), which has been around since 1986, has always taken a no-nonsense route based on good engineering principles and innovative thinking. Two of their strikingly good ideas were the use of side-firing woofers, and integrating an active subwoofer with a pair of small monitor speakers. Both philosophies culminated in the Xd series of DSP-EQ'd active loudspeakers, which I had the pleasure of <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/1105nht">reviewing</A&gt; in the November 2005 issue. My first reaction to the concept was "Why hasn't anyone done this before?" The results completely justified an approach that, I believe, points loudspeaker design in a new direction.

California company Now Hear This (NHT), which has been around since 1986, has always taken a no-nonsense route based on good engineering principles and innovative thinking. Two of their strikingly good ideas were the use of side-firing woofers, and integrating an active subwoofer with a pair of small monitor speakers. Both philosophies culminated in the Xd series of DSP-EQ'd active loudspeakers, which I had the pleasure of <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/1105nht">reviewing</A&gt; in the November 2005 issue. My first reaction to the concept was "Why hasn't anyone done this before?" The results completely justified an approach that, I believe, points loudspeaker design in a new direction.