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(February 28) High End 2020, aka Munich High End, has been canceled “due to the current worsening trend with respect to the spread of the novel coronavirus.”

On June 23, Burr-Brown">http://www.burr-brown.com/">Burr-Brown Corp. announced the PCM1728 digital-to-analog converter (DAC), designed for consumer and professional audio applications.

HTPCs are hot among home theater cognoscenti. Using a personal computer to anchor an audio/video system has boomed in recent years due to the availability of high quality video processing software, Dolby Digital and DTS decoding support, and DVD transports. HTPCs (home">http://www.guidetohometheater.com/news/11166/">home theater personal computers) also thrive in part because of the tinkering gene shared by many enthusiasts.

Recent news from Universal Music Group should bode well for the SACD format. It's not exactly a flood, but the world's largest music company finally made good on the promisehttp://www.stereophile.com/news/11238/">promise; it made at the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and announced last week its first Super Audio CD (SACD) titles to be released in the United States.

In mid-April, Texas Instruments and Intel announced developments likely to improve the experience for many music fans in the near future. TI announced the industry's highest performance four-channel audio digital–analog converter (DAC), and Intel released the final v1.0 specification for "Intel High Definition Audio."

We were sorry to learn that Hiroyasu Kondo died January 8, while attending CES in Las Vegas.

On Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson's Swiss Radio Days, Vol.15: JATP Lausanne 1953 (TCB 02152), the performances are so extraordinary that only the music itself can fully tell the tale.

Where Pogs and Pokemon once ruled, HitClipshttp://www.tigertoys.com/newhitclips/">HitClips; have taken over. HitClips are hot. So hot, in fact, that Hasbro">http://www.hasbro.com">Hasbro Incorporated's Tiger Electronics division has sold more than 20 million of them at $3.99 each. That's $80 million gross on a single product, a figure that probably no high-end audio company has ever reached.

The least-expensive Wilson speaker and the most-expensive Vandersteen speaker go head-to head in the May issue, accompanied by reviews of PS Audio's affordable DSD DAC, Schiit's high-value Ragnarok integrated amplifier, Luxman's high-performance EQ-500 phono preamplifier, Vandersteen's unique monoblock amplifier . . .

Spring may be a little late arriving this year, to judge from the weather in New York, but the May issue is on its way to subscribers, newsstands, and tablets. Featuring Bowers & Wilkins' impressive 702 S2 speaker on the cover, which is reviewed inside by Kal Rubinson, this issue features reviews of amplifiers from Luxman, Mark Levinson, NAD, and Parasound; phono cartridges from Soundsmith and Audio-Technica; an intriguing NOS DAC from HoloAudio; Art Dudley on a DeVore Fidelity speaker; and, believe it or not, a smartphone that offers both hi-rez and MQA playback.