Digital perfectionists <B>Meridian</B> obviously pulled out all the stops on their new flagship speaker product, the DSP8000. Checking in at $45,000/pair, the eight-driver Digital Active design is expected to hit the market sometime in March. Meridian claims the three-way powered speaker has a 24/96 digital input on the back and processes the digital signal internally with two 100MHz DSP engines operating with 24/192 resolution. Also on display were the new DSP33s, also Digital Active but more modestly priced at $4500/pair.

High-end audio in trouble? That's been the consensus the last few years, but the sheer number of new products at this year's Consumer Electronics Show hints at a steady trend in the opposite direction. New developments in power conditioning abound, and several brave companies are even testing the SACD/DSD and DVD-Audio waters.

Judy Spotheim, maker of the SpJ arm and the gorgeous La Luce turntable that I reviewed a while back for <I>Stereophile</I> (October 1998) and that has subsequently become one of my references for LP playback. She's an intelligent, well-read individual who has a penchant for asking me, "You didn't read that in the manual?!" Ahem. Although the following interview was taped on the phone from her home in the Netherlands, I hope to meet her sometime soon.

Judy Spotheim, maker of the SpJ arm and the gorgeous La Luce turntable that I reviewed a while back for <I>Stereophile</I> (October 1998) and that has subsequently become one of my references for LP playback. She's an intelligent, well-read individual who has a penchant for asking me, "You didn't read that in the manual?!" Ahem. Although the following interview was taped on the phone from her home in the Netherlands, I hope to meet her sometime soon.

Judy Spotheim, maker of the SpJ arm and the gorgeous La Luce turntable that I reviewed a while back for <I>Stereophile</I> (October 1998) and that has subsequently become one of my references for LP playback. She's an intelligent, well-read individual who has a penchant for asking me, "You didn't read that in the manual?!" Ahem. Although the following interview was taped on the phone from her home in the Netherlands, I hope to meet her sometime soon.

Judy Spotheim, maker of the SpJ arm and the gorgeous La Luce turntable that I reviewed a while back for <I>Stereophile</I> (October 1998) and that has subsequently become one of my references for LP playback. She's an intelligent, well-read individual who has a penchant for asking me, "You didn't read that in the manual?!" Ahem. Although the following interview was taped on the phone from her home in the Netherlands, I hope to meet her sometime soon.

Now that the big odometer has finally turned over, John Atkinson takes a moment to look back at the last 50 years of music reproduction&mdash;the era of high-end audio. Writing in "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/185/">Happy New Audio Millennium</A>," JA offers a little perspective on where audiophiles have traveled this last half century, and where we haven't.

Owners of Threshold electronics will soon have an expert service organization available for their amplifiers and preamps. Threshold Corporation national sales manager <A HREF="mailto:CE@thresholdservice.com">Chris English</A> reports that he has assumed the presidency of a new company to be devoted solely to servicing Threshold equipment. Based in Texas, Threshold Service Company will employ factory-trained technicians and engineers, and will offer warranties on all their work.

It's been a tough year for some of the audiophile record labels, as witnessed by the demise in late November of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10614/">previous story</A>). The shock of MoFi's sudden departure even prompted Kimber Kable's Ray Kimber to fire off an e-mail to everyone within virtual reading range, urging them to buy a few audiophile CDs and LPs right now, before it's too late.