How much power do you really need? How much power can you actually use? What's necessary, and what's icing on the cake? And does <I>anyone</I> really need 1000Wpc?

How much power do you really need? How much power can you actually use? What's necessary, and what's icing on the cake? And does <I>anyone</I> really need 1000Wpc?

How much power do you really need? How much power can you actually use? What's necessary, and what's icing on the cake? And does <I>anyone</I> really need 1000Wpc?

How much power do you really need? How much power can you actually use? What's necessary, and what's icing on the cake? And does <I>anyone</I> really need 1000Wpc?

How much power do you really need? How much power can you actually use? What's necessary, and what's icing on the cake? And does <I>anyone</I> really need 1000Wpc?

In anticipation of the upcoming 1.0 DVD-Audio specification (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10236/">previous article</A>), <A HREF="http://www.sonic.com/">Sonic Solutions</A> and <A HREF="http://www.warnerbros.com/frame_moz3_day.html">Warner Music Group</A> wasted no time in announcing their intent to collaborate in creating new multichannel high-density recordings to showcase the new format. Warner was one of the first major labels to deliver music via CD, and Warner's video division has never been shy in their support of Open-DVD for video. So it comes as no surprise that they're one of the first major music houses out of the gate for the audio version of DVD.

Recordable CD machines are nothing new these days, especially those aimed at the PC market. Those machines that find their way into Desktop PCs can end up doing everything from backing up corporate financial data to mastering CD-ROM titles. Many are used for recording music CDs as well, and so a new CD-Recorder from <A HREF="http://www.smartandfriendly.com">Smart and Friendly</A> has a couple of features thrown in just to excite the audio folk.

Several weeks ago, we <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10211/">reported</A&gt; on the revival of McCormack Audio by Bill Conrad and Lew Johnson, who purchased the company's assets at an auction in Southern California. This past week, McCormack Audio has announced that one of the original co-founders, Steve McCormack, has rejoined the company as Director of Research and Development. McCormack had worked at the company from its inception in 1982 until 1996.

Some optimists in Washington, on Wall Street, and elsewhere predicted that the Asian economic crisis wouldn't reach the United States. But in late August, the financial flu infecting that part of the world, and the ongoing monetary instability in Russia, finally affected North America. As of Friday, August 28th, the <A HREF="http://www.dowjones.com/">Dow Jones</A> Industrial Average was hovering just above 8000, down from a record high of 9337.97 on July 17th. The market decline has affected the whole economy---traditional industries as well as hot-ticket ventures like Internet stocks.