It would be easy to blame the popularity of home computers for a recent slowdown in audio component sales, except for the fact that PCs are having a tough season themselves. Maybe all of those audio dollars are being spent to cover losses in the stock market or to buy new PlayStation 2s. Regardless, sales of audio products suffered a bit of a slump this past October compared to last year.

Music industry veteran Rudi Gassner died Saturday, December 23 at his vacation home in the Bavarian town of Samerberg. Recently appointed as president and chief executive of <A HREF="http://www.bmg.com">BMG Entertainment</A>, Gassner had yet to assume the helm at the record label. The cause of death was a heart attack, according to a statement issued by his family. Gassner was 58.

If it's the software that sells a new format, then several recent announcements bode well for both SACD and DVD-Audio. Last week, DTS announced plans to begin shipment of the first DVD-Audio music recordings produced by its company-owned <A HREF="http://www.dtsonline.com">DTS Entertainment</A> record label by late February 2001. Also, the first multichannel SACD to be produced by a major label from an original multitrack master, Mike Oldfield's recently remastered 1971 classic <I>Tubular Bells</I> is due for release from Virgin Records in February 2001.

The <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10924/">fate</A&gt; of Hales Loudspeakers has been a subject of much concern and discussion among audiophiles since the shuttering of parent company Wadia Digital a few months ago. There is now considerable light at the end of the tunnel, as revealed by Hales founder L. Paul Hales in a telephone interview December 22.

DVD-Audio has been brewing for a couple of years now, finally going public with the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/300/">Technics DVD-A10 DVD-Audio player</A>. Jonathan Scull got his eager hands on this groundbreaking machine last September, only to find that evaluating a new format is a complicated affair. Will this player, and DVD-Audio in general, soothe the audiophile heart? Scull takes a listen and spills the bits.

American radio stations which stream music programming over the Internet may be facing substantial outlays in royalty fees paid to record companies, under a December 8 ruling by the US Copyright Office, a division of the Library of Congress. After months of legal wrangling, the office decided that radio stations are just as liable for such fees as other music sites. "Transmissions of a broadcast signal over a digital communications network such as the Internet are not exempt from copyright liability," the ruling states.

I love a simple tweak—one so elegant that I bang my forehead in recognition, moaning "Why didn't I think of that?!"

Many audiophiles&mdash;especially owners of Hales loudspeakers&mdash;have wondered whether or not the brand will be revived, in view of a <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10918/">recent announcement</A> by Audio Video Research of Ann Arbor, Michigan that it has acquired the assets of Wadia Digital and plans to resume production and product development of the revered name. Wadia acquired Hales (two of whose products were still <I>Stereophile</I> "Recommended Components" as of October 2000) last year, just a few months before financial difficulties put Wadia into a nosedive from which it could not recover.