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CD recorders are the hottest ticket in audio at the moment. Philips and Marantz once dominated the category, but other manufacturers have recently jumped on board with their own versions, among them Pioneer and Harman/Kardon. <A HREF="http://www.onkyo.co.jp">Onkyo</A&gt; will introduce its DX-RD511 dubber later this month at the 1999 <A HREF="http://www.cedia.org/">CEDIA</A&gt; Expo in Indianapolis. The machine is expected to arrive in stores in October&mdash;just in time for the holiday season.

J. Gordon Holt founded <I>Stereophile</I> in the fall of 1962 in order to promote the idea that the optimal way to judge audio components was to do what end users did: <I>listen</I> to them. Since then, Gordon has had an unbroken relationship with <I>Stereophile</I>, through its sale to Larry Archibald in 1982, my coming on board as editor in 1986, the sale of the magazine to Petersen Publishing in 1998, and the subsequent sale of Petersen to Emap in 1999. Through all this time he has been listed on the magazine's masthead as "Founder & Chief Tester." (A <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//interviews/66/">fascinating interview</A> with Gordon, conducted by his associate and friend Steven Stone, can be found in this website's "Archives.")

More than a million CD recorders have been sold in the last 21 months, making the category one of the most rapidly developing segments in the history of the consumer electronics industry. The news was delivered by <A HREF="http://www.philips.com/">Philips</A&gt; executives at the end of August at the IFA trade and consumer exhibition in Berlin, Germany.

Last week's Soapbox inspired this week's question: Which do you prefer

A quarter-million dollars' worth of recording and duplicating equipment and hundreds of thousands of counterfeit compact discs and cassette tapes were just part of the booty seized by New York's Suffolk County police in what has been called the "biggest bust of bootleg music in US history." Twelve people were arrested in raids during the first week of September at warehouses in Manhattan, Queens, and Long Island.

Beginning September 21, more than 50 music retailers will offer David Bowie's new album, <I>hours . . .</I>, as a digital download from their websites. Other companies have released promotional singles, but the event will be the first time an entire album has been offered by a record company over the Internet. The Internet release will run about two weeks, leading up to the October 5 debut of the album in stores. Bowie was one of the first major recording artists to venture onto the Internet, with his 1997 single, "Telling Lies."

When <A HREF="http://www.sony.com">Sony</A&gt; introduced the first Super Audio CD (SACD) player, the SCD-1 (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10445/">previous report</A> and Jonathan Scull's forthcoming review in the November 1999 <I>Stereophile</I>), audiophiles who heard it were impressed with its performance, but wondered if its $5000 price tag would keep it out of the market for a while. Last week, Sony announced their second SACD player, the SCD-777ES, to appear in October at the slightly more wallet-friendly price of $3500.