Trickle-down technology is a grand thing. It's comparatively easy to build an exceptional audio component when there are no constraints on technology, cost, user-friendliness, or lack thereof, but top designers are now packing more and more of the excellence of damn-the-torpedoes components into more affordable and accessible packages. Which brings us to the Aesthetix Rhea, a tubed phono preamplifier of exceptionally distinguished lineage.

Graham Nash and Frank Zappa will be <A HREF="http://www.dts.com">DTS Entertainment's</A> first artists to debut in Europe on DVD-Audio, thanks to an agreement between DTSE and Cadiz Music, Ltd., a distributor in Greenwich, England. DTS Entertainment is the entertainment division of Digital Theater Systems, Inc., based in Agoura Hills, CA.

More compact discs that attempt to restrict how you use them are coming to a record store near you. BMG announced last week that its Arista Records division will be the company's first label in the US to release a commercial CD using copy-restriction technology.

It's just about impossible to imagine a worse public relations campaign than the one being waged by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the nation's courtrooms.

Audio companies create products that are based on a variety of technologies, provoking lawsuits every once in a while when patents are involved. One such lawsuit erupted earlier this year as Robert W. Carver, designer for and founder of <A HREF="http://www.sunfire.com">Sunfire Corporation</A>, filed a US patent lawsuit against <A HREF="http://www.audioprods.com/">Audio Products International</A> (API).

We kick off three speaker reviews from the September issue with Brian Damkroger's assessment of the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/919/">Audio Physic Virgo III loudspeaker</A>. A perfect meld of minimonitor <I>and</I> full-range bass extension? BD reveals all.

Johnny Cash, the 71-year-old American icon, died September 12 of respiratory failure caused by complications from diabetes. The singer/songwriter had been released from the hospital the preceding day after a two-week struggle with an unspecified stomach ailment.

There is one date I dread every year: my wife's birthday. After nearly 16 years of marriage, I have exhausted every last iota of my spousal resources in trying to think of a suitable present. Nothing too ordinary, nothing too <I>out</I> of the ordinary, nothing that will trigger those dreaded words, "You <I>did</I> keep the receipt, right?"

<B>FRANCK: Violin Sonata in A<BR>RACHMANINOFF: Cello Sonata in g</B><BR> Renaud Capu&#231;on, violin; Gautier Capu&#231;on, cello; Alexandre Gurning, Lilya Zilberstein, piano<BR>EMI Classics 5 57505 2 (CD). 2003. Carlo Piccardi, prod.; Ulrich Ruscher, eng. DDD. TT: 65:33<BR>Performance <B>****</B><BR>Sonics <B>****</B>