"It costs as much as a car—and not a used jalopy, either." That's what goes through your head as you contemplate this magnificent $20,190 piece of audio jewelry. I don't mean "jewelry" pejoratively; the tubed Jadis RC JP80 MC Mk.II is a gorgeous, gleaming hunk of retro-looking machinery. Two hunks, actually: an equally large remote power supply is connected via an umbilical cord terminated with an elbow connector the size of house plumbing.

"Size does matter," John Atkinson discovers, as he fits the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/accessoryreviews/504shure">Shure E3c in-ear headphones</A> into his ears. Once fitted, JA hooks the mini "cans" up to his iPod and PowerBook to discover how much audiophile sound a little set of ear buds can produce.

How does a struggling satellite radio service increase its market exposure more than 20-fold in one fell swoop? Simple. It enters a sweetheart deal with one of the biggest satellite TV companies in North America.

Saturday is always the crunch day at the Home Entertainment Show. There are more people in the halls, more bodies in the rooms, and more noise everywhere&mdash;and it's wonderful. People here really speak our language: audiogeek spoken here.

<I>The screen door slams<BR>Mary's dress waves</I>&mdash;Bruce Springsteen, "Thunder Road" (footnote 1)

<I>The screen door slams<BR>Mary's dress waves</I>&mdash;Bruce Springsteen, "Thunder Road" (footnote 1)

<I>The screen door slams<BR>Mary's dress waves</I>&mdash;Bruce Springsteen, "Thunder Road" (footnote 1)

As noted in the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/304round">March installment</A> of "Music in the Round," there are so many new multichannel hardware goodies to talk about that we need this bonus appearance of the column just to keep up. Nor do I expect the rush of gear to stop&mdash;I've just returned from CES in Las Vegas, where there was lots of new multichannel hardware and software that I will report on in June, including a luscious all-tube analog multichannel preamp. This month I report on a universal disc player, a comparison of Sony's top-of-the-line <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/1203sony">SCD-XA9000ES<…; multichannel SACD player with its respected predecessor, and a multichannel preamp that's almost too good a deal.

As noted in the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/304round">March installment</A> of "Music in the Round," there are so many new multichannel hardware goodies to talk about that we need this bonus appearance of the column just to keep up. Nor do I expect the rush of gear to stop&mdash;I've just returned from CES in Las Vegas, where there was lots of new multichannel hardware and software that I will report on in June, including a luscious all-tube analog multichannel preamp. This month I report on a universal disc player, a comparison of Sony's top-of-the-line <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/1203sony">SCD-XA9000ES<…; multichannel SACD player with its respected predecessor, and a multichannel preamp that's almost too good a deal.