LATEST ADDITIONS

In his bimonthly column, "The Fifth Element," John Marks has tried to identify pro-audio components that would be of interest to audiophiles. In his June 2005 episode, John wrote about Grace Design's m902 D/A headphone amplifier ($1695), the Colorado company's replacement for the 901, which had long been a favorite of his. Changes include: the handling of single-wire sample rates of up to 192kHz; unbalanced analog outputs, controlled by the front volume control, to allow the unit to be used as a preamplifier; a cross-feed processing circuit licensed from www.meier-audio.de; power-supply revisions; and the provision of a USB digital input, in addition to S/PDIF, AES/EBU, and TosLink.

Looking at all of the high-end headphones and headphone accessories available today, it's difficult to even remember how barren the head-fi landscape was in the early 1990s. Back then, headphones got no respect, except for exotic, expensive electrostatic models, yet most of the world listened to music through headphones all the time, mostly through crappy cans connected to portable players. (Well, maybe it wasn't <I>that</I> different a landscape.)

The Home Entertainment 2006 Show, June 1&ndash;4, 2006 in Los Angeles at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel, has announced a special benefit concert to support the Elf Foundation, a non-profit charity that creates Rooms of Magic&mdash;private entertainment theaters in children's hospitals that bring the enchantment of uplifting music and film to seriously ill children around the country. A portion of the concert admission will go to the Elf Foundation to support its wonderful work.

On March 24, Universal Classics labels Decca and Deutsche Grammophon announced a pioneering global initiative to release live recordings of recent performances by the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics for download on iTunes. By the end of the year, four major European orchestras are expected to follow suit, releasing live concerts on the web on the DG Concerts or Decca Concerts virtual labels.

<I><B>Hammersmith Odeon, London `75</B></I><BR>
Columbia

<I><B>Lotta Love Concert</B></I><BR>
Rhino

<i>Medeski Martin & Wood @ HE2005.</i>