There's something special about big tube amplifiers. No other audio component has such a primal appeal or can so quickly reduce grown (?) audiophiles to Homer Simpsons sighing, "Mmmmm...toooobs." EveAnna Manley, president of Manley Laboratories, understands the effect of high-powered tubes on the audiophile brain and shares the obsession. A Harley rider, mountain climber, and devoted music lover, she is one of the industry's most individualistic characters. You just have to appreciate a gal who ends each CES by blaring Rage Against the Machine at top volume.

Home theater may be the electronic industry's golden goose, but, contrary to nasty rumors, standalone audio is sailing along proudly, as demonstrated by several recently released products.

DVD-Audio may have gotten a boost on the production end with the impending release of DVD-Audio Creator LE, an authoring system developed and marketed by <A HREF="http://www.sonic.com">Sonic Solutions</A>. Available October 15, the authoring system will sell for $5999, a price that could enable many small recording studios and mastering houses to begin working with the format. "DVD-Audio Creator LE puts powerful tools in the hands of professional mastering studios at a very low cost," said Dietrick Hardwick, DVD-Audio product manager at Sonic Solutions. "This enables facilities to significantly expand their service offerings by providing their clients DVD-Audio title creation at an affordable price."

In his recent review of the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/663/">Thiel CS1.6 loudspeaker</A>, John Atkinson pointed out that while expensive speakers "do indeed provide great sound for the tens of thousands of dollars they demand from their owners, they are out of reach of the majority of audiophiles." Ever the populist, JA tackles this reasonably priced Thiel to see how it measures up to the big boys.

Chip manufacturer <A HREF="http://www.cirrus.com">Cirrus Logic</A> announced last week that it has introduced two audio, high-performance, digital-to-analog converters (DACs) that it claims will enable manufacturers to bring more DVD-Audio players to the mainstream consumer market.

On Wednesday, September 11, the <A HREF="http://www.nab.org">National Association of Broadcasters</A> (NAB) filed a brief with the U.S. Copyright Office seeking relief from the implementation of a webcasting royalty schedule announced this summer by the Librarian of Congress, James Billington. In June, Billington determined that commercial stations streaming their musical programming on the Internet should pay a rate of .07 cents per song per 1000 listeners, a rate less than half that suggested by the music industry&ndash;backed Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel.

As the saying goes, there are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics. Statistics can be used to help understand what goes on in the world, but, as any marketing exec or PR company knows, they can also be manipulated to tell a particular story.

What if they gave a format war and nobody came?

In the past year, <I>Stereophile</I> has reviewed a number of cost-no-object flagship loudspeakers. <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/600/">B&W's Signature 800</A>, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/390/">MartinLogan's Prodigy</A>, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/601/">Burmester's B-99</A>, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/556/">Snell's XA Reference Tower</A>, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/382/">Krell's LAT-1</A>, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/555/">Linn's Komri</A>, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/501/">Dynaudio's Evidence Temptation</A>, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/391/">Sony's ES SS-M9ED</A>, and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/644/">Rockport's Antares</A> have all passed through the review mill. Manufacturers like to submit their flagships for review for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the pride they take in showing what their engineers can do when given a blank check. However, while all these models do indeed provide great (if different) sound for the tens of thousands of dollars they demand from their owners, they are out of reach of the majority of audiophiles. It is important, therefore, for reviewers to spend time with real-world designs; when I heard the $1990/pair CS1.6 from Kentucky's Thiel at the 2002 CES last January, I requested a pair for review.