The last couple of years have been a bumpy ride for <A HREF="http://referencerecordings.com/">Reference Recordings</A>. The company's troubles began two years ago this week when it was <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11719/index.html">announced</A&gt; that it had been acquired by The Dorian Group after more than 25 years as an independent label dedicated to audiophile sonics.

<I>New cable:</I> <A HREF="http://www.rivercable.com">River Cable</A> has announced a new speaker cable called Flexygy 8, which employs eight conductors in a flat, flexible topology with "tremendous amounts of copper." Boasting a "unique ratio of low resistance-to-capacitance," Flexygy 8's capacitance is rated at 10pF/ft. Additionally, Flexygy 8 is touted as "an installation dream, [it goes] under carpets, along baseboards, with a super flexibility that can’t be beat in a cable with an aggregate AWG of 7."

Ibrahim Ferrer, one of the best-known practitioners of the Cuban vocal music known as <I>son</I>, died in Havana on August 6 of multiple organ failure. He had returned, ill, from a European tour several days previously, and then been hospitalized.

As the Senate Commerce Committee began hearings on issues related to <I>MGM v. Grokster</I> on July 28, Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) president Gary Shapiro issued a masterfully constructed statement reminding the Committee of the stakes involved. Why masterful? Essentially, we are struck by the concision of the CEA argument and its gentle reminder that a significant American industry will be crucially affected by the final resolution of this issue&mdash;and not the one that first springs to mind, either.

Walking through the circus that was WCES '95 was like undergoing total neural-synaptic overload. I felt hard-pressed to just keep my head above water separating good sound from bad. Trying to piece together a coherent picture of the show, I jotted down the components in the best systems that I'd heard, and a few items popped up with astonishing regularity. One of these was Audio Research's single-chassis CD player, the CD-1.

Walking through the circus that was WCES '95 was like undergoing total neural-synaptic overload. I felt hard-pressed to just keep my head above water separating good sound from bad. Trying to piece together a coherent picture of the show, I jotted down the components in the best systems that I'd heard, and a few items popped up with astonishing regularity. One of these was Audio Research's single-chassis CD player, the CD-1.

Walking through the circus that was WCES '95 was like undergoing total neural-synaptic overload. I felt hard-pressed to just keep my head above water separating good sound from bad. Trying to piece together a coherent picture of the show, I jotted down the components in the best systems that I'd heard, and a few items popped up with astonishing regularity. One of these was Audio Research's single-chassis CD player, the CD-1.

Walking through the circus that was WCES '95 was like undergoing total neural-synaptic overload. I felt hard-pressed to just keep my head above water separating good sound from bad. Trying to piece together a coherent picture of the show, I jotted down the components in the best systems that I'd heard, and a few items popped up with astonishing regularity. One of these was Audio Research's single-chassis CD player, the CD-1.

<I>A strange disguise; still, write it down,<BR>it might be read. Nothing's better left unsaid.</I>&mdash;Keith Reid