<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.

You want to grow your market, you've got to plant some seeds. The <A HREF="http://www.ce.org/">Consumer Electronics Association</A> (CEA) is doing just that with the <A HREF="http://www.buzznet.org/">BuzzNet 2000</A> tour, a traveling educational event that will hit college campuses beginning this month, as reported <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10859/">last week</A>.

Warner Music Group may have just announced its first DVD-Audio titles (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10861/">related story</A>), but an upstart independent label is claiming the first DVD-A discs actually available for sale. In an attempt to establish itself as the leader in the new DVD-Audio format, 5.1 Entertainment Group's <A HREF="http://www.silverlinerecords.com/">Silverline Records</A> says it has begun shipping the first commercially available 24-bit/96kHz DVD-Audio disc, <I>Swingin' for the Fences</I>, by Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band.

Slap echo got you in a flutter? Jonathan Scull writes, in <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//finetunes/275/">"Fine Tunes" #27</A>, that "last month I delved into avoiding reflective, parallel-wall slap echoes from ruining your audiophile day. But I've since learned of a perfectly useful workaround that's much less costly and involved than horsing around the Sheetrock." George Cardas lends a hand.

After a difficult gestation, DVD-Audio may finally be moving toward becoming a market reality now that a major record label has stepped forward to support it. <A HREF="http://www.wmg.com/">Warner Music Group</A> (WMG) has issued several recordings in the new format, covering a range of genres. DVD-A is "the most significant industry format launch since the introduction of the CD nearly 20 years ago," according to an October 2 WMG press release.

<B>In the Beginning Was the Word...</B> <BR> At first blush, the sound of the Vandersteen Model 2Ce Signature transported me to a bucolic nature trail in the Berkshires on one of those high, dry August days when the amber stillness of late afternoon imparts a sense of otherness against the endless vistas of green and brown and blue. In my Wordsworthian reverie, as I made my way up the mountainside, remembrances of venerable loudspeakers past called out to me from the sturdy stands of New England foliage. Mark you the lofty maple and the supple white birch; the noble pine, the mighty oak and humble larch; there, on the crest, an Acoustic Research AR3a; farther up the ridge, a copse of Advent, KLH, and Allison&mdash;and finally, high on yonder peak, beckoning like God's own flip-top, crush-proof box, the Vandersteen 2Ce Signature.

<B>In the Beginning Was the Word...</B> <BR> At first blush, the sound of the Vandersteen Model 2Ce Signature transported me to a bucolic nature trail in the Berkshires on one of those high, dry August days when the amber stillness of late afternoon imparts a sense of otherness against the endless vistas of green and brown and blue. In my Wordsworthian reverie, as I made my way up the mountainside, remembrances of venerable loudspeakers past called out to me from the sturdy stands of New England foliage. Mark you the lofty maple and the supple white birch; the noble pine, the mighty oak and humble larch; there, on the crest, an Acoustic Research AR3a; farther up the ridge, a copse of Advent, KLH, and Allison&mdash;and finally, high on yonder peak, beckoning like God's own flip-top, crush-proof box, the Vandersteen 2Ce Signature.