E<I>ditor's Note: This is Part Two of a six-part series from reader Herv&#233; Del&#233;traz of Switzerland, who is chronicling the development of his DIY (do-it-yourself) audio amplifier. (Part One is <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10825/">here</A&gt;.)</I>

Music lovers who availed themselves of <A HREF="http://www.mp3.com/">MP3.com</A>'s uploading-archiving-and-accessing services are about to become the next target market for the music industry. Nearing the end of protracted litigation brought against it by the music industry's "Big Five," the online music venture has announced a marketing service that will promote new commercial recordings directly to its users through e-mails. The recordings will be on labels under the control of MP3.com's opponents in the year-long copyright wrangle.

An improved digital-audio compression standard has been adopted by the <A HREF="http://www.bmg.com/">Bertelsmann Music Group</A> (BMG) and the <A HREF="http://www.umusic.com/">Universal Music Group</A> for commercial music downloads. "Advanced Audio Coding" (AAC) is said to offer higher audio quality while occupying 30% less bandwidth and storage space than the popular MP3 format, according to an announcement from San Francisco&ndash;based <A HREF="http://www.dolby.com/">Dolby Laboratories</A>.

Bright April Sunday sunshine beams through the bay window of my listening room. The light catches four loudspeakers on stands, two stacks of electronic equipment, a small video monitor, black cables strung behind furniture, and a pile of freshly opened DVDs. I sit in the center in a large, overstuffed chair covered in blue velvet, listening to an array of six loudspeakers and a TV monitor playing <I>The Haunting</I>'s DTS soundtrack. The floor rumbles as the sounds of creaking timbers come up from below.

Bright April Sunday sunshine beams through the bay window of my listening room. The light catches four loudspeakers on stands, two stacks of electronic equipment, a small video monitor, black cables strung behind furniture, and a pile of freshly opened DVDs. I sit in the center in a large, overstuffed chair covered in blue velvet, listening to an array of six loudspeakers and a TV monitor playing <I>The Haunting</I>'s DTS soundtrack. The floor rumbles as the sounds of creaking timbers come up from below.

Bright April Sunday sunshine beams through the bay window of my listening room. The light catches four loudspeakers on stands, two stacks of electronic equipment, a small video monitor, black cables strung behind furniture, and a pile of freshly opened DVDs. I sit in the center in a large, overstuffed chair covered in blue velvet, listening to an array of six loudspeakers and a TV monitor playing <I>The Haunting</I>'s DTS soundtrack. The floor rumbles as the sounds of creaking timbers come up from below.

Bright April Sunday sunshine beams through the bay window of my listening room. The light catches four loudspeakers on stands, two stacks of electronic equipment, a small video monitor, black cables strung behind furniture, and a pile of freshly opened DVDs. I sit in the center in a large, overstuffed chair covered in blue velvet, listening to an array of six loudspeakers and a TV monitor playing <I>The Haunting</I>'s DTS soundtrack. The floor rumbles as the sounds of creaking timbers come up from below.

Bright April Sunday sunshine beams through the bay window of my listening room. The light catches four loudspeakers on stands, two stacks of electronic equipment, a small video monitor, black cables strung behind furniture, and a pile of freshly opened DVDs. I sit in the center in a large, overstuffed chair covered in blue velvet, listening to an array of six loudspeakers and a TV monitor playing The Haunting's DTS soundtrack. The floor rumbles as the sounds of creaking timbers come up from below.

Bright April Sunday sunshine beams through the bay window of my listening room. The light catches four loudspeakers on stands, two stacks of electronic equipment, a small video monitor, black cables strung behind furniture, and a pile of freshly opened DVDs. I sit in the center in a large, overstuffed chair covered in blue velvet, listening to an array of six loudspeakers and a TV monitor playing <I>The Haunting</I>'s DTS soundtrack. The floor rumbles as the sounds of creaking timbers come up from below.

Bright April Sunday sunshine beams through the bay window of my listening room. The light catches four loudspeakers on stands, two stacks of electronic equipment, a small video monitor, black cables strung behind furniture, and a pile of freshly opened DVDs. I sit in the center in a large, overstuffed chair covered in blue velvet, listening to an array of six loudspeakers and a TV monitor playing <I>The Haunting</I>'s DTS soundtrack. The floor rumbles as the sounds of creaking timbers come up from below.