Have you ever had one of those conversations with your Significant Other that begins "But I thought you said..." and goes downhill from there? The Other's tone is condescending, and the body language—hands on hips, head slightly tilted—lets you know you're in big trouble.

Have you ever had one of those conversations with your Significant Other that begins "But I thought you said..." and goes downhill from there? The Other's tone is condescending, and the body language—hands on hips, head slightly tilted—lets you know you're in big trouble.

Harman International announced July 1 that it will close its Madrigal facility in Middletown, CT on August 30 as it continues to consolidate and reorganize its high-end brands under the <A HREF="http://www.harmanspecialtygroup.com/">Harman Specialty Group</A> banner. Although the name Madrigal was itself not used as a brand on audio products, it had been the umbrella under which Harman had produced and distributed its Mark Levinson, Revel, Audio Access, and (<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11612/">recently discontinued</A>) Proceed brands.

BMG and <A HREF="http://www.sunncomm.com">SunnComm</A&gt; Technologies revealed last week that they have entered into a "strategic worldwide" licensing agreement and revenue deal to add restriction technology to CDs in an effort to reduce piracy and the unauthorized duplication of music. The companies report that the agreement will enable the use of SunnComm's newest proprietary CD restriction system, known as MediaMax CD-3 Technology, on BMG discs.

Beginning in November 1996, Sam Tellig, Muse Kastanovich, and John Atkinson took turns with the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/873/">Musical Fidelity X-10D line-level preamplifier</A>. "I'll reveal the true identity of X-10D in a moment," Tellig writes. "But I'll say straight off that for those of you with such CD players as the Marantz CD 63, RadioShack Optimus CD-3400, <I>etc</I>, this may be the most cost-effective CD upgrade ever to come down the pike."

Dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, the music industry may finally be settling into an uneasy acceptance that its market and business model have changed. Only two months after the successful launch of Apple's iTunes Music Store, <A HREF="http://www.billboard.com"><I>Billboard</I></A&gt; magazine announced that it would begin accounting for downloads in its weekly music rankings.

A continuing sales slump has the <A HREF="http://www.tweeter.com">Tweeter Entertainment Group, Inc.</A> projecting losses for the third straight quarter.

The science of recording music is, to apply a metaphor from a very different context, akin to "breaking a butterfly on a wheel" (footnote 1). The art of recording is to make it appear as though that pinned insect could still take wing. I have been devoted to both the science and the art of recording music since 1965, when I was given a Grundig &#188;" open-reel tape recorder as a birthday present. You could even say that my evolving interest in audio and my current position at the helm of <I>Stereophile</I> date back to my finding out how different a Shure SM57 dynamic cardioid microphone sounded from a Reslo Ribbon, even in mono, even at 3&#190;ips, when captured on that Grundig.

The science of recording music is, to apply a metaphor from a very different context, akin to "breaking a butterfly on a wheel" (footnote 1). The art of recording is to make it appear as though that pinned insect could still take wing. I have been devoted to both the science and the art of recording music since 1965, when I was given a Grundig &#188;" open-reel tape recorder as a birthday present. You could even say that my evolving interest in audio and my current position at the helm of <I>Stereophile</I> date back to my finding out how different a Shure SM57 dynamic cardioid microphone sounded from a Reslo Ribbon, even in mono, even at 3&#190;ips, when captured on that Grundig.