Out of action for more than a year, Mobile Fidelty should be returning soon. Online retailer <A HREF="http://www.amusicdirect.com">Music Direct</A> has purchased the remastering and re-release specialty company, according to an <A HREF="http://pages.prodigy.net/amicus1/end_los.htm">announcement</A&gt; made April 24.

One of the most esteemed labels in the audiophile universe should soon be back in business. Online retailer <A HREF="http://www.musicdirect.com">Music Direct</A> has purchased remastering and re-release specialty company Mobile Fidelity, according to an <A HREF="http://pages.prodigy.net/amicus1/end_los.htm"&gt; announcement</A> made April 24.

Amid news that its watermark technology for DVD-Audio may have been <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11026/">compromised</A&gt;, <A HREF="http://www.verance.com">Verance</A&gt; nonetheless announced last week the launch of its "ConfirMedia" watermarking service. The company says that ConfirMedia will monitor and report the airplay of encoded commercials, music, and programs broadcast by television, cable and radio stations in the 100 top US markets and on the national feeds of major broadcast and cable television networks in the US.

Back in September, the <A HREF="http://www.sdmi.org">Secure Digital Music Initiative</A> issued a public challenge that offered cash rewards for successfully uncovering and removing watermarks from recorded music. The <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10878/">challenge was met</A> by a number of hackers, most notable among them Professor Edward Felten of Princeton University's Computer Science Department.

Jonathan Scull asks "What's it take to compete on the bleeding edge of digital?" Apparently more than what's offered by the "large international manufacturing and marketing concerns stalking the earth today." Will the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/340/">Accuphase DP-100 Super Audio CD transport & DC-101 Digital Processor</A> make the cut? Scull's incisive report reveals all.

One argument for the record industry's disappointing sales last year is a combination of high prices for official CD releases coupled with cheap prices for computer-based CD recorders and CD-R blanks. It doesn't look like retail CD prices will be coming down anytime soon, but luckily for the music business, CD-R prices are going up.

Little noted by the mainstream media, technology companies are pushing ahead with research and development programs for high-resolution audio. Two announcements in late April indicate that neither DVD-Audio nor the Super Audio CD is a passing fancy.

I get mail. Boy do I get mail! But I love hearing about and sharing some of the tips'n'tweaks from all you Victims of the Musical Quest. I can't help myself. Neither can you, I understand. Come to me. [sob]

I suspect that the faces of many of the readers who thumb through the pages of <I>Stereophile</I> must resemble those peering out of some Norman Rockwell representation of Americana: little children, their noses pressed hard against the display window of an urban department store in the weeks preceding Christmas, eyes aglow at the sight of some epic model train or exquisitely detailed dollhouse. So near, yet so far.