Unlike the imposing mbl and Burmester DACs that I review elsewhere in this issue, the Mark Levinson No.360 is New England conservative in appearance. Its operation was simple to master despite the sophistication and flexibility on tap. Flanked by Fasolt and Fafner, the Levinson No.360 seemed as amiable as Freia.

It is with regret that we announce to <I>Stereophile</I>'s readers the closing of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, on November 19, 1999. Known to audiophiles since its inception in 1977, the company provided serious listeners with hundreds of remastered LPs, cassettes, and CDs.

Among the ingredients needed for a successful online consumer-electronics business, having well-known, sought-after brands may be the most important. Just in time for the holiday season, <A HREF="http://www.hifi.com">Hifi.com</A&gt; announced last week that it has become one of a "select group" authorized to sell Sony Electronics products over the Internet. This announcement comes on the heels of Celestion and Marantz joining the mail-order retailer (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10576/">previous story</A>).

The object of the audio game, as <I>Stereophile</I> founder J. Gordon Holt put it, is "to re-create original acoustic events as accurately as possible." That goal has driven engineers to extraordinary lengths, improving every link in the recording and playback chain. Most such improvements are incremental, but their cumulative effect is the sometimes astounding level of sonic realism available today from even moderately priced equipment.

In his third installment of "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//finetunes/173/">Fine Tunes</A>," Jonathan Scull encourages readers to stick their heads in a corner. "Notice how strongly the bass loads up there, how exaggerated and out of control it sounds," he writes. With the help of Jeff Joseph, Scull also reveals a trick for dealing with square rooms.

Old joke: "We lose money on every sale, but we make it up in volume." A similar concept seems to be at the heart of the free download phenomenon sweeping through the Internet music industry: give it away as a lo-rez MP3, and customers will come back to buy the CD.

One of the challenging attributes of the new DVD-Audio format is the ability to release music in high-resolution multichannel (four or more) sound. For some this will be a thorny issue: Can previously released recordings be remixed to take advantage of the extra channels without sounding gimmicky? Should classical and/or live recordings use the surround channels for concert-hall ambience? How long will it be until consumers even care about setting up their systems to take advantage of more than two full-bandwidth channels?

In the last two years, the available choices in 300B output tubes for one's low-wattage single-ended power amplifier have become an embarrassment of riches. If we include the souped-up versions&mdash;which, in fact, deviate from the original 1930s Western Electric (WE) specifications&mdash;the number of 300Bs to choose from now includes about 15 different brands and types.

In the last two years, the available choices in 300B output tubes for one's low-wattage single-ended power amplifier have become an embarrassment of riches. If we include the souped-up versions&mdash;which, in fact, deviate from the original 1930s Western Electric (WE) specifications&mdash;the number of 300Bs to choose from now includes about 15 different brands and types.