Following on the heels of its <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10863/">announcement last week</A> of the first commercially available DVD-Audio disc (<I>Swingin' for the Fences</I>, by Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band), <A HREF="http://www.silverlinerecords.com">Silverline Records</A> says that Aaron Neville will become the first major artist to release an album in the format. Silverline expects that, on October 24, Neville's solo album <I>Devotion</I> will be released on DVD-A. The disc will also include audio tracks compatible with standard DVD players.

Mastering engineer Denny Purcell let out a long sigh. "Does anyone in this room really believe that any of this is going to do any good?" he asked. Of the eight or nine people&mdash;each with decades of experience in the music and/or audio industries&mdash;hanging out at Georgetown Masters Studios in Nashville for SDMI's Phase II listening tests, no one said "Yes." The consensus: The watermarking issue will probably be dead and forgotten within a year.

The most common complaint about record companies: CD prices are too high. In fact, many blame Napster's runaway success on the insistence of "greedy labels" on pricing discs at $15 or higher. Apparently BMG Direct, a division of <A HREF="http://www.bmg.com/">BMG Entertainment</A>, has put two and two together and found it equals $9.99.

L<I>ast night I saw him on the stair&mdash;<BR>the little man who wasn't there.<BR>I saw him there again today;<BR>oh, how I wish he'd go away.</I>

Kalman Rubinson gives a long listen to the 1998 <I>Stereophile</I> Editor's Choice winner, the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/278/">Z-Systems rdp-1 digital preamplifier</A>. Like many audiophiles, Kal eschewed tone controls in favor of the purist approach&mdash;until he met the rdp-1. As he puts it: "Now, the time has come for DSP to give the audiophile some powerful tools to tailor frequency response and to correct faults in the recording."

<B>EMMYLOU HARRIS: <I>Red Dirt Girl</I></B><BR> Nonesuch 79616-2 (CD). 2000. Malcolm Burn, prod., eng. AAD? TT: 55:58<BR> Performance <B>****?</B><BR> Sonics <B>****</B>

According to a report just released by the <A HREF="http://www.narm.com">National Association of Recording Merchandisers</A> (NARM), Digital distribution&mdash;particularly streaming technology&mdash;will seriously disrupt the music industry, but has the potential to "benefit all segments of the business if companies can leverage their traditional strengths and create compelling consumer value propositions."

In an unusual move, chipmaker <A HREF="http://www.cirruslogic.com/">Cirrus Logic</A> has purchased patents for Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) technology owned by <A HREF="http://www2.bwspeakers.com/">B&W Loudspeakers</A>, a leading UK manufacturer. The patents will be used in combination with current Cirrus Logic technology in a new line of digital amplifiers, according to an October 2 news release.