News

For some time now, the truly hip Web-enabled person of stature has shared his or her thoughts with the world via a blog (from web log); these days actors, musicians, and, yes, even politicians are getting into the act.

Running counter to the music industry's paranoia concerning the perils of modern digital technology, some musicians want you to share their music—within limits. GarageBand.comhttp://www.garageband.com">GarageBand.com;, which bills itself as "the world's largest musician community," announced June 7 that it now offers the Creative Commons Music Sharing License as an optional tag for all songs uploaded to its website.

Pay $350,000 for an amplifier?!?!! Michael Fremer takes a deep breath and plugs in the Wavac">http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/704wavac">Wavac SH-833 monoblock power amplifier in order to hear for himself what he might get if he traded in his house. "When tmh's Jim Ricketts asked me if I wanted to review this eight-box assemblage," says MF, "the first thing I did was laugh at the ludicrousness of the situation. Then I said, 'Why the hell not?'"

Most audiophiles are generally loathe to think that they'd run their main audio systems from a computer. Last time we">http://cgi.stereophile.com/cgi-bin/showvote.cgi?346">we ran a poll, answers such as this one from David L. Wyatt, Jr. were typical: "Why in the world would I hook my computers to my stereo? If I want to make a compilation CD of the music I have purchased, I'll just burn one."

Would a piece of Krell electronics be the crowning jewel on your equipment rack?

XM on a roll: Recent marketing efforts appear to be paying off for XM Satellite Radio. On July 2, the satellite radio startup announced that it had exceeded the 2.1-million subscriber mark during the second quarter. More than 418,000 new subscribers signed up during that period—over twice the number recruited in the same quarter last year. XM-compatible products are appearing at an ever-increasing number of retail outlets, leading some observers to believe that the company may have a fighting chance in the long run.

The NHT Xd DSP powered speaker demo was held at the Plaza Hotel in New York City last week and representatives from NHTwww.nhthifi.com">NHT; and its supporting cast, DEQXhttp://www.deqx.com/">DEQX; and PowerPhysicshttp://www.PowerPhysics.com/">PowerPhysics;, opened by explaining the philosophy behind the new product and the essential components they each contributed (also see previoushttp://www.stereophile.com/news/022304nht/index.html">previous;).