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Wes Phillips slips into his well-worn flame-proof underwear as he bravely introduces audiophiles to the musical merits of the Apple">http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/934/">Apple iPod. WP finds he likes living at the edge of audio trendiness, exclaiming, "Holy cow! I'm running with the fashionistas! Can I still be an audiophile, too?"

Whether listeners like it or not, record labels, including major players like BMG and Arista Records, are now">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11734/">now making moves to rein in how their CDs are played and used. Unfettered CDs have been on the shelves for almost two decades, and some industry observers note that changing how they work at this late stage could be a recipe for trouble with consumers.

On 28 July 2003, TAG McLaren Audio issued">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11701/">issued a statement saying that it had ceased the development of new products and was undertaking a full strategic review of its participation in the audio market.

Kalman Rubinson looks past the odd knobs to discover what's at the heart of the Blue">http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/929/">Blue Circle BC21 preamplifier & BC22 power amplifier. KR reveals, "In the past, I've found components with small drawbacks that made them unacceptable, but the Blue Circle BC21 and BC22 triumphed over their flaws."

Sirius Satellite Radio is concerned about The Bottom Line. Not the company's profitability, but the venerable Greenwich Village music cabaret, which has suffered since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

The major record labels and the RIAA have invested much time and effort in sabotaging the MP3 file-trading revolution and its supporters. But the appeal of the compressed music format for a large segment of music fans is undeniable, and many critics of the RIAA have suggested that the petite and portable audio files should be embraced, not resisted.

Is retailing headed up or down? North America's two largest electronics retailers have reported vastly different results for the second quarter.