Robert Deutsch tackles the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/749/">Balanced Audio Technology VK-40 preamplifier</A>, noting "Few topics will get audiophiles into an argument more readily than a discussion of the relative merits of tubed and solid-state equipment."

Quad's David Patching was all smiles as he showed off the company's new CD player, called simply the CD-P. No SACD or DVD-A, said Patching, who says they'll wait until either a ton of high-rez discs are sold (not just produced) or until the format war is over and a clear winner emerges.

Back to the Alexis Park for a press conference with Classic Records, which has decided to release its first DVD-Audio disc around February 15. Classic was one of the very first labels to take advantage of the original DVD specification's ability to hold a 24/96 two-channel audio track, and it started releasing DAD discs exactly five years ago. The company's first DVD-A release will be the Vanguard title <I>Songs of the Auvergne</I>, which will feature a 24/192 two-channel DVD-A track and 24/96 two-channel DVD-V track.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) officially opened today and we spent our time at the Alexis Park noticing even more exhibitors than last year. On hand were plenty of new products, companies, and high-rez software demos. Multichannel demos were in heard in several rooms&mdash;all to good effect.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) officially starts Thursday, but tradition has established Wednesday as the day several major consumer electronics manufacturers hold press events, hoping to get their messages across before the full-scale onslaught of dealers.

In a world where brand is everything and making money is the bottom line, it should come as no surprise that if there's a buck to be made, any deal is possible. But who would have imagined, 30 years ago, that the bad boys and girls of rock'n'roll would be married to the then-much-scorned icon of safe, watered-down elevator music?

From 1989 and 1992, John Atkinson reviews the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/744/">Celestion SL600si loudspeaker and the DLP600 digital equalizer</A>. "Given that conventional equalizers are quite correctly regarded in Audioland as being poor-sounding pieces of cheap, amusical junk," JA asks, "what I am doing reviewing what, for want of a better word, is an equalizer?"

In a pre&ndash;Consumer Electronics Show announcement, <A HREF="http://www.ti.com">Texas Instruments</A> says it has integrated its FireWire (IEEE1394), multichannel audio digital signal processor (DSP), and digital amplifier technologies in a single board to demonstrate an all-digital audio system from source to speaker.

<B>STEVE TIBBETTS: <I>A Man About a Horse</I></B><BR> Steve Tibbetts, guitar, percussion; Jim Anton, bass; Marc Anderson, Marcus Wise, percussion<BR> ECM 1814 (CD). 2002. Steve Tibbetts, prod., eng. ADD. TT: 45:07<BR> Performance <B>*****</B><BR> Sonics ****&#189;</B>