The other night I heard The Tallis Scholars—the world's foremost exponents of Renaissance polyphony—sing in the Chorus of Westerly's performance hall, in Rhode Island: an 1886-vintage former Roman Catholic church with nearly all of its original horsehair plaster intact (footnote 1). Even sitting back in the cheap seats, the sound was glorious. I have never heard a vocal ensemble sing with more finesse, pitch security, or blend of tone.

If anyone ever thinks to compile a list of the 100 seminal audio papers that should be found in every tech-aware audiophile's filing cabinet, Harry Olson's "Direct Radiator Loudspeaker Enclosures" deserves to feature in it. Originally presented at the second Audio Engineering Society Convention, in October 1950, it was published in <I>Audio Engineering</I> in 1951. In 1969&mdash;in a rare and certain acknowledgement of its classic status&mdash;the AES republished it in its <I>Journal</I> (footnote 1).

If anyone ever thinks to compile a list of the 100 seminal audio papers that should be found in every tech-aware audiophile's filing cabinet, Harry Olson's "Direct Radiator Loudspeaker Enclosures" deserves to feature in it. Originally presented at the second Audio Engineering Society Convention, in October 1950, it was published in <I>Audio Engineering</I> in 1951. In 1969&mdash;in a rare and certain acknowledgement of its classic status&mdash;the AES republished it in its <I>Journal</I> (footnote 1).

At last January's Consumer Electronics Show, one of the more musically satisfying rooms I visited in Las Vegas' Alexis Park Hotel was hosted by Canadian magazine <I>Inner Ear Report</I>. I had visited the room ostensibly to take a look at the Audiophile APS AC regeneration system, but I also wanted to give a listen to the Gershman Acoustics Opera Sauvage speakers that I had agreed to review for <I>Stereophile</I>&mdash;not just the speakers in the abstract, but the very samples that, after CES, were going to make the trek to my Brooklyn listening room.

At last January's Consumer Electronics Show, one of the more musically satisfying rooms I visited in Las Vegas' Alexis Park Hotel was hosted by Canadian magazine <I>Inner Ear Report</I>. I had visited the room ostensibly to take a look at the Audiophile APS AC regeneration system, but I also wanted to give a listen to the Gershman Acoustics Opera Sauvage speakers that I had agreed to review for <I>Stereophile</I>&mdash;not just the speakers in the abstract, but the very samples that, after CES, were going to make the trek to my Brooklyn listening room.

At last January's Consumer Electronics Show, one of the more musically satisfying rooms I visited in Las Vegas' Alexis Park Hotel was hosted by Canadian magazine <I>Inner Ear Report</I>. I had visited the room ostensibly to take a look at the Audiophile APS AC regeneration system, but I also wanted to give a listen to the Gershman Acoustics Opera Sauvage speakers that I had agreed to review for <I>Stereophile</I>&mdash;not just the speakers in the abstract, but the very samples that, after CES, were going to make the trek to my Brooklyn listening room.

At last January's Consumer Electronics Show, one of the more musically satisfying rooms I visited in Las Vegas' Alexis Park Hotel was hosted by Canadian magazine <I>Inner Ear Report</I>. I had visited the room ostensibly to take a look at the Audiophile APS AC regeneration system, but I also wanted to give a listen to the Gershman Acoustics Opera Sauvage speakers that I had agreed to review for <I>Stereophile</I>&mdash;not just the speakers in the abstract, but the very samples that, after CES, were going to make the trek to my Brooklyn listening room.

At last January's Consumer Electronics Show, one of the more musically satisfying rooms I visited in Las Vegas' Alexis Park Hotel was hosted by Canadian magazine <I>Inner Ear Report</I>. I had visited the room ostensibly to take a look at the Audiophile APS AC regeneration system, but I also wanted to give a listen to the Gershman Acoustics Opera Sauvage speakers that I had agreed to review for <I>Stereophile</I>&mdash;not just the speakers in the abstract, but the very samples that, after CES, were going to make the trek to my Brooklyn listening room.

The oldest verified surviving recording is an 1878 tin cylinder of a talking clock (you can hear it at <A HREF="http://tinfoil.com/cm-0101.htm">tinfoil.com/cm-0101.htm</A&gt;). There's just one problem, however; the recording's surface noise is so pronounced that you can barely hear the featured attraction. Chalk it up to age, imperfect recording media, poor storage, or even to the ravages of mold, but the facts remain the same&mdash;we're in danger of losing our audio patrimony: the hundreds of thousands of historical recordings from the dawn of recording.

On July 11, Kevin Britten of Hays, Kansas downloaded the 100 millionth song purchased from Apple's <A HREF="http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/">iTunes music store</A>. Britten spent 99&#162; for "Somersault (Dangermouse remix)" by Zero 7 and, in exchange, won a 17" PowerBook, a 40GB iPod, and a gift certificate entitling him to 10,000 iTunes songs (the approximate capacity of a 40Gb iPod). As Apple counted down to 100 million, it also gave "special 20GB iPods" to the consumers who downloaded each 100,000th song between 95 million and 100 million.