Back in 1996, Martin Colloms reviewed the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/809/">Krell KAV-300i integrated amplifier</A>, asking, "Is Krell risking its reputation?" He needn't have worried, as the 300i has gone on to become a popular audiophile classic.

Webcasters will pay a new royalty rate to the recording industry, as of April 3.

At the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show in January&mdash;see the report in this issue&mdash;Sony and Philips held an SACD Event at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. There were trippy lights. There were the Grand Pooh-Bahs of Sony, Philips, and the record labels. There was loud multichannel Big Brother and the Holding Company. And there was Sony's main SACD man in the US, David Kawakami, supplying the pep talk.

At the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show in January—see the report in this issue—Sony and Philips held an SACD Event at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. There were trippy lights. There were the Grand Pooh-Bahs of Sony, Philips, and the record labels. There was loud multichannel Big Brother and the Holding Company. And there was Sony's main SACD man in the US, David Kawakami, supplying the pep talk.

Corey Greenberg channels his heroes Beavis and Butthead to review the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/804/">NHT SuperZero loudspeaker and SW2 subwoofer</A>. As CG explains, the NHT may be the first speaker "that really <I>kicks ass</I>&mdash;one that offers true high-end, full-range sound, all for under $1000." <I>Huh-huh, huh-huh.</I>

It's no secret that the music industry has added watermarking to its arsenal in an effort to restrict how audio content is used. With SACD, DVD-Audio, and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11604/">now CD</A>, audio watermarking has been used mainly for digitally stored content. But the music business also has problems with live concert bootlegs as well as bootlegs surfacing after special broadcast events.

The nascent satellite radio industry has entered a critical phase, with both <A HREF="http://www.xmradio.com">XM Radio</A> and <A HREF="http://www.siriusradio.com">Sirius Satellite Radio</A> posting losses for the fourth quarter. Combined, the two companies have yet to sign up a half-million subscribers.

Last year in late October, Universal Music Group finally <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11476/">announced</A&gt; its first set of SACD titles and the high-rez format's supporters jumped for joy. Then, at the January 2003 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Universal stood on the podium next to Sony and announced several key SACD releases from the Police, Peter Gabriel, and others.

Job cutbacks are one inevitable result of sustained sales declines. In late March, the ailing music industry began to shed excess workers in an effort to reach profitability, with <A HREF="http://www.sonymusic.com">Sony Music</A> and <A HREF="http://www.bmg.com">Bertelsmann Music Group</A> announcing significant reductions in their workforces.

Alleged unauthorized copying of compact discs will cost Technicolor, Inc. approximately $2.3 million. On March 26, the Southern California disc replicator agreed to settle a <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11309/">case</A&gt; brought against it last year by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), in which the RIAA charged that workers at one of Technicolor's disc plants had made and distributed batches of illegal copies. The total of the settlement was less than 10% of the amount originally sought by the RIAA.