Polk Audio is the Rodney Dangerfield of high-end audio. Why <I>does</I> this conscientious, innovative, and well-organized company garner no respect from hard-to-please audiophiles?

Polk Audio is the Rodney Dangerfield of high-end audio. Why <I>does</I> this conscientious, innovative, and well-organized company garner no respect from hard-to-please audiophiles?

Polk Audio is the Rodney Dangerfield of high-end audio. Why <I>does</I> this conscientious, innovative, and well-organized company garner no respect from hard-to-please audiophiles?

Polk Audio is the Rodney Dangerfield of high-end audio. Why <I>does</I> this conscientious, innovative, and well-organized company garner no respect from hard-to-please audiophiles?

The economic downturn doesn't appear to be hurting <A HREF="http://www.tweeter.com">Tweeter Home Entertainment Group</A>.

Citing poor sales in North and South America, <A HREF="http://www.emigroup.com">EMI</A&gt; reported that it lost $77.6 million during the first six months of its business year, ended September 30, compared to a loss of $44.3 million for the same period last year.

Record label attempts at restricting the potential uses of their CDs have hit another bump in the antipiracy road. Music label BMG had announced earlier this year that it would try to find ways to restrict its CDs, in an effort to stem piracy and the trading of MP3 files. But those plans appear to have backfired, so far.

Purported <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11074/">financial difficulties</A> haven't prevented <A HREF="http://www.towerrecords.com">Tower Records</A> from developing a massive new flagship store in Los Angeles. Occupying more than 33,000 square feet, the new store in the renovated Sherman Oaks Galleria features a "state-of-the-art" performance stage and a Super Audio CD demonstration room.

Jonathan Scull takes a gander at the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/454/">dCS Purcell D/D converter</A>, and tries to make sonic sense out of the merits of upsampling. Scull writes, "So while the true differences between upsampling and oversampling remain murky, my pleasant mission is to report on the sound of the Purcell and compare it to the latest version of the pro-audio version, the 972."