L<I>ast night I saw him on the stair&mdash;<BR>the little man who wasn't there.<BR>I saw him there again today;<BR>oh, how I wish he'd go away.</I>

Kalman Rubinson gives a long listen to the 1998 <I>Stereophile</I> Editor's Choice winner, the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/278/">Z-Systems rdp-1 digital preamplifier</A>. Like many audiophiles, Kal eschewed tone controls in favor of the purist approach&mdash;until he met the rdp-1. As he puts it: "Now, the time has come for DSP to give the audiophile some powerful tools to tailor frequency response and to correct faults in the recording."

<B>EMMYLOU HARRIS: <I>Red Dirt Girl</I></B><BR> Nonesuch 79616-2 (CD). 2000. Malcolm Burn, prod., eng. AAD? TT: 55:58<BR> Performance <B>****?</B><BR> Sonics <B>****</B>

According to a report just released by the <A HREF="http://www.narm.com">National Association of Recording Merchandisers</A> (NARM), Digital distribution&mdash;particularly streaming technology&mdash;will seriously disrupt the music industry, but has the potential to "benefit all segments of the business if companies can leverage their traditional strengths and create compelling consumer value propositions."

In an unusual move, chipmaker <A HREF="http://www.cirruslogic.com/">Cirrus Logic</A> has purchased patents for Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) technology owned by <A HREF="http://www2.bwspeakers.com/">B&W Loudspeakers</A>, a leading UK manufacturer. The patents will be used in combination with current Cirrus Logic technology in a new line of digital amplifiers, according to an October 2 news release.

You want to grow your market, you've got to plant some seeds. The <A HREF="http://www.ce.org/">Consumer Electronics Association</A> (CEA) is doing just that with the <A HREF="http://www.buzznet.org/">BuzzNet 2000</A> tour, a traveling educational event that will hit college campuses beginning this month, as reported <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10859/">last week</A>.

Warner Music Group may have just announced its first DVD-Audio titles (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10861/">related story</A>), but an upstart independent label is claiming the first DVD-A discs actually available for sale. In an attempt to establish itself as the leader in the new DVD-Audio format, 5.1 Entertainment Group's <A HREF="http://www.silverlinerecords.com/">Silverline Records</A> says it has begun shipping the first commercially available 24-bit/96kHz DVD-Audio disc, <I>Swingin' for the Fences</I>, by Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band.

Slap echo got you in a flutter? Jonathan Scull writes, in <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//finetunes/275/">"Fine Tunes" #27</A>, that "last month I delved into avoiding reflective, parallel-wall slap echoes from ruining your audiophile day. But I've since learned of a perfectly useful workaround that's much less costly and involved than horsing around the Sheetrock." George Cardas lends a hand.

After a difficult gestation, DVD-Audio may finally be moving toward becoming a market reality now that a major record label has stepped forward to support it. <A HREF="http://www.wmg.com/">Warner Music Group</A> (WMG) has issued several recordings in the new format, covering a range of genres. DVD-A is "the most significant industry format launch since the introduction of the CD nearly 20 years ago," according to an October 2 WMG press release.