Bard-Alan Finlan

Reader Bard-Alan Finlan has seen the hype about digital satellite radio from XM and Sirius. He'd like to know what you're really thinking about the new format.

For the first time in five years, New York City will play host to the largest hi-fi and home theater show in the US. Home Entertainment 2001 promises to be the largest and most comprehensive such event to date when it takes place this spring at the Hilton New York & Towers Hotel on May 11-13, 2001.

Guitarist John Fahey died February 22 at Salem Hospital in Salem, OR, two days after undergoing multiple coronary bypass surgery. The enigmatic musician had been suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome and diabetes for years. Fahey was 61.

Although it sounds like a disease resulting from poor dental hygiene, Bluetooth is a recently established wireless standard aimed at small-form–factor, low-cost, short-range radio links between mobile PCs, mobile phones, and other electronic devices such as speaker systems. Although there were a few bumps in the road as the standard became established, Cahners In-Stat Group predicts that 1.4 billion Bluetooth-based devices will be shipping annually by 2005.

The <A HREF="http://www.ce.org/">Consumer Electronics Association</A> has at last quantified common knowledge: An overwhelming majority of Internet users download news stories, product information, pictures, graphics, audio files, and video clips&mdash;all for free. Furthermore, Internet users want and expect to continue getting all this content at no cost, and they are opposed to any kind of governmental regulation or interference that will prevent their doing so.

Sorry to empty your wallet this month, but here's a must-have if you want to get the most from your upsampling <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/276/">MSB Link DAC III</A>: Monarchy Audio's Digital Interface Processor 24/96 (DIP for short).

Many years ago, I awoke one Saturday morning to find my girlfriend, with whom I'd had a knock-down, drag-out fight the night before, out on the street in front of our house having an impromptu yard sale. The sale featured <I>my record collection</I>. We broke up. I still have the records.