LATEST ADDITIONS

This still young love affair with vinyl LPs has worked to introduce me to many musicians I had previously neglected.

Storing downloads is always a balance between fidelity and hard-drive space/costs. If you had to pick one, which of the following formats would you choose for your downloads?

Two unusual download sites now offer high-resolution 24-bit files for audiophiles with a taste for adventure. The first, the UK's <A HREF="http://www.bowers-wilkins.co.uk/sos">B&W Music Club</A>, is a one-album-per-month subscription service that premieres complete, audiophile-quality albums in a wide variety of genres chosen and recorded by "curator" Peter Gabriel. The second, <A HREF="http://www.hifitrack.com/en/">HifiTrack.com</A&gt;, is a Hong Kong-based site that offers Chinese and Asian traditional and pop music, Zen and meditation music, and Chinese-flavored Western pop, jazz, and classical.

<i>Photo: Michael Lavorgna</i>

<I>The Telegraph</I> has a <A HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/celebritynews/4942055/… show</A> of 21 previously unpublished photographs of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, taken mostly by their US tour manager Bob Bonis.

Like all companies that have been in business long enough to become fixtures in the marketplace, Infinity has seen its share of changes. It has long been that audio rarity&#151;a company with one foot in the High End and one in the mass market. For the past few years, however, and despite continuing production of the now-classic IRS in its Series V incarnation, Infinity's mass-market foot has been the more firmly planted. Infinity, now a large company, is part of an even larger conglomerate, Harman International.

Everyone loves a bargain. Everyone loves finding an undiscovered gem. But for audiophiles on a budget, finding good, reasonably priced cables isn't a luxury but a necessity. In a $1000 or $2500 system, there simply isn't money for $500 interconnects or $1000 speaker cables. Even a $5000 system&#151;which most of my well-educated, music-loving, affluent friends view as pretty extravagant, by the way&#151;can't accommodate premium cables like the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/cables/800nirvana">Nirvana</A&gt;, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/cables/198synergistic">Synergistic Research</A>, or <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/cables/1101nordost">Nordost</A&gt; models that we reviewers rave about as "critical to getting the most out of your system."