On a very special Saturday night in early September&mdash;late winter in Australia&mdash;I was deeply moved by hearing Brahms' Symphony 1 in the concert hall of the Sydney Opera House complex. Perhaps it was Marek Janowski's fiery, inspired conducting, but I keep recalling the hall itself. Earlier that day, I had photographed&mdash;first from my hotel room, later from a ferry&mdash;the huge, nesting sail-like roofs, covered with a million white ceramic tiles, that enclose an opera theater, concert hall, and restaurant. Twenty-five years in construction and costing over $107 million, the Sydney Opera House is described in my <I>Fodor's '98 Australia</I> guide as "the most widely recognized landmark of urban Australia." Attending the concert that night&mdash;all 2679 seats were occupied&mdash;I found the acoustics lovely, dark, and rich.

On a very special Saturday night in early September&mdash;late winter in Australia&mdash;I was deeply moved by hearing Brahms' Symphony 1 in the concert hall of the Sydney Opera House complex. Perhaps it was Marek Janowski's fiery, inspired conducting, but I keep recalling the hall itself. Earlier that day, I had photographed&mdash;first from my hotel room, later from a ferry&mdash;the huge, nesting sail-like roofs, covered with a million white ceramic tiles, that enclose an opera theater, concert hall, and restaurant. Twenty-five years in construction and costing over $107 million, the Sydney Opera House is described in my <I>Fodor's '98 Australia</I> guide as "the most widely recognized landmark of urban Australia." Attending the concert that night&mdash;all 2679 seats were occupied&mdash;I found the acoustics lovely, dark, and rich.

On a very special Saturday night in early September&mdash;late winter in Australia&mdash;I was deeply moved by hearing Brahms' Symphony 1 in the concert hall of the Sydney Opera House complex. Perhaps it was Marek Janowski's fiery, inspired conducting, but I keep recalling the hall itself. Earlier that day, I had photographed&mdash;first from my hotel room, later from a ferry&mdash;the huge, nesting sail-like roofs, covered with a million white ceramic tiles, that enclose an opera theater, concert hall, and restaurant. Twenty-five years in construction and costing over $107 million, the Sydney Opera House is described in my <I>Fodor's '98 Australia</I> guide as "the most widely recognized landmark of urban Australia." Attending the concert that night&mdash;all 2679 seats were occupied&mdash;I found the acoustics lovely, dark, and rich.

A good reference work on a subject like audio can help speed the understanding of complicated terms and develop the reader's grasp of the hobby's more arcane reaches. Unfortunately, not all audio books serve the audio<I>phile</I> equally well. Read about one such mishap in <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//reference/101/">Book Review: <I>High Fidelity Audio/Video Systems: A Critical Guide for Owners</I></A>.

First with CD players, then digital preamps, and recently amplifiers, digital technology has ground inexorably through the audio chain. Several companies have been developing ways to shorten the analog path or remove it entirely. <A HREF="http://www.meridian.co.uk/">Meridian</A>'s "digital" loudspeakers come to mind, as well as the amplifiers from manufacturers <A HREF="http://www.spectronav.com">Spectron</A&gt; and <A HREF="http://www.tactaudio.com">TacT</A&gt;.

Owners of Apogee Acoustics loudspeakers are apparently being left to twist in the wind by <A HREF="http://www.adst.com/">a/d/s/</A&gt;, the company that took over Apogee and subsequently shut it down (other than to apply the brand to a range of switch-mode power amplification modules). Service will no longer be available for the ribbon speakers, according to Apogee owner <A HREF="mailto:mcarnicelli@bigfoot.com">Matt Carnicelli</A>.

Myles Astor, publisher of <A HREF="http://www.ultimateaudio.com/"><I>Ultimate Audio</I></A>, recently announced that former <I>Stereophile</I> contributing editor Jack English has joined his publication as a senior editor.

Montreal audiophiles are a hardy lot. Last winter, the city experienced the most devastating ice storm in its history, with power lines demaged to the point that almost the entire city was plunged in darkness. At the time of the 1998 Festival du Son et de l'Image (aka the Montreal Audio/Video Show), residents were still recovering from the effects of the storm. Did this calamity stop the show? No way! By all accounts, the 1998 show was the most successful in the event's 11-year history. I missed it myself, but I made sure that I wouldn't miss the next one.

Among major American cities, San Francisco probably ranks near the top in culture per capita. It's therefore no accident that an Internet venture billing itself "the world's first website journal of classical music criticism" should have originated there. The site, <A HREF="http://www.sfcv.org/"><I>San Francisco Classical Voice</I></A>, is celebrating its first six months online.