Jon Iverson

Listening to and <I>evaluating</I> audio products in the CES trade-show environment is usually an utterly useless exercise. But every once in a while, a demonstration will clearly prove an exhibitor's point. PS Audio was able to do this with a convincing introduction to their Power Plant a couple of years back, as was Ray Kimber with his DiAural technology. This year, the "proof of concept in a hotel room" award would likely go to a new Australian upstart, ClarityEQ.

One of the oldest names in American audio is venturing into new territory. Indianapolis, IN&ndash;based <A HREF="http://www.klipsch.com/">Klipsch Audio Technologies</A> has acquired "selected assets" of privately held <A HREF="http://www.mondialdesigns.com/">Mondial Designs Ltd</A>. of Dobbs Ferry, NY, maker of the Acurus and Aragon brands of amplifiers, preamps, and signal processors. Paul Rosenberg, Mondial's co-founder and former vice president, will become a director at his new parent company, with primary responsibilities in marketing and product development for Acurus and Aragon. Mondial chief engineer Adam Gershon and senior engineer Michael Kusiak will also remain with the company. Anthony Federici, Mondial's president, has moved on to form a new company called D & A Labs, which plans to debut a "high-end home theater receiver" this spring, with other quality electronics to follow.

The year was 1948. As a six-year-old, I haunted record stores with my Uncle Stan. A quiet bank teller from Manchester, England, childless himself and quite overpowered by my Aunt Emily, Uncle Stan shared with me his love of music and movies.

A common complaint about <I>Stereophile</I> is that we review too much expensive equipment that our readers could never afford. Does this bother you, or should we continue to pursue state-of-the-art sound, without regard to cost?

The "Big Five" of the recorded music industry is one step closer to becoming the "Big Four," according to late-January reports from Frankfurt, Germany, home of <A HREF="http://www.bertelsmann.de/">Bertelsmann AG</A>. Bertelsmann is the parent company of <A HREF="http://www.bmg.com/">Bertelsmann Music Group</A>, which has been in merger discussions for several months with the United Kingdom's <A HREF="http://www.emigroup.com/"&gt; EMI Group PLC</A>. Discussions are near completion, according to a BMG official.

Despite the best efforts of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan to extend an unprecedented economic boom, the nation's economy is slowing. The slowdown is causing negative repercussions in many sectors&mdash;including the music retailing business and consumer electronics manufacturing.

Sony may be pretending that DVD-Audio doesn't exist, and Panasonic may be in denial about SACD, but a new chip from <A HREF="http://www.ti.com">Texas Instruments</A> just might help bring the rival formats a little closer together in consumer living rooms and professional recording studios alike.