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Our latest issue features a spicy interview with recording musician and Blue Note Records head Don Was; reviews of several speakers including KEF's affordable, wireless LSX, Wilson's Yvette, and the ultra-affordable Emotiva Airmotiv T2; and McIntosh's superb-measuring, powerful MC462 power amplifier.

Common Wave Hi-Fi is proud to host John Devore for the North American debut of his long awaited Orangutan Reference speaker system.

On the evening of July 24, the passing of EMT's classic OFD series of pickup heads was noted in singular style: In Living Stereo, the hi-fi and record store that represents EMT in New York City, invited their customers to drop by for drinks, snacks, and the opportunity to hear their favorite mono LPs played with OFD 15 and OFD 25 pickups on an otherwise all-Shindo system.

The October Stereophile may have featured a retro tubed integrated amplifier on its cover but the November issue, hitting newsstands and mailboxes now, spotlights the hi-tech, solid-state Musical Nu-Vista 800 integrated amplifier. Don't fret, thermionic aficionados, the Musical Fidelity's preamp section is built around classic nuvistor triodes.

Incubus is following the Dixie Chicks' lead.

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 previous">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10614/">previous story). 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.

Internet traffic doubles every 100 days, according to some statistics. This growth has been accompanied by an increase in the amount of online shopping---a phenomenon that has had a significant impact on retailers. Independent bookstores, for example, have been squeezed not only by the expansion of large-scale operations like Barnes">http://www.barnesandnoble.com/">Barnes & Noble, but also by the popularity of Internet discounters like Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/">Amazon.com; and Borders.comhttp://www.borders.com/">Borders.com;. Online sales of recorded music by both record clubs and start-up resellers have put a dent in the bottom lines of many mass-market music stores---although not a huge one yet. The trend will certainly continue.

Warner Music Group may have just announced its first DVD-Audio titles (see related">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10861/">related story), but an upstart independent label is claiming the first DVD-A discs actually available for sale. In an attempt to establish itself as the leader in the new DVD-Audio format, 5.1 Entertainment Group's Silverline">http://www.silverlinerecords.com/">Silverline Records says it has begun shipping the first commercially available 24-bit/96kHz DVD-Audio disc, Swingin' for the Fences, by Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band.

Good Morning America: The war for listeners between XM Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio has seen MLB go to one broadcaster (XM) and Howard Stern to the other. On June 21, Sirius announced an agreement that will put the BBC's popular Radio 1 on a time-shifted broadcast schedule. The time-shift will enable American listeners to hear Radio 1's broadcast day "as it was intended—with Chris Moyles' Breakfast Show in the morning, Scott Mills' show in the afternoon, and kicking off the weekend with Pete Tong's Friday night Essential Selection," according to a press release.

Financially, the winter months have been all over the map. Some electronics companies have reported upswingshttp://www.stereophile.com/news/030804retailing/">upswings; in revenue, but others are experiencing a decrease.