LATEST ADDITIONS

The Music Player has tons of inputs: USB2.0, iPod (with control and display), S/PDIF digital coaxial, TOSlink digital optical, LAN, W-LAn, and RS232 for update and control interface.

We were stunned to see Roger Skoff in the Ultralink/XLO room—we thought he'd retired years ago. "I did," he explained, "but I was asked to design some new stuff incorporating new technologies and more advanced versions of our existing designs."

It exists; we saw it for ourselves! Wadia's $349 iTransport can take the digital signal out of an iPod <I>before</I> the DAC, outputting 16-bit/44.1khz resolution for uncompressed files&mdash;it doesn't upconvert lower-rez files like MP3s, but it <I>does</I> reformat them to 16/44.1, according to Wadia's John Schaffer.

The new Wadia iTransport detailed above also comes in your choice of hot rod finishes. Well not officially, but they couldn't resist making one for the show.

We ran into SinglePower Inc.'s Mikhail Rotenberg as he was sprinting down the hall to the Synergistic Research room. "Check these out," he said. "These are a 1932 Tung Argon 4327 and a 1943 722A (323), labeled Centennial, but manufactured by Western Electric."

Now that hi-rez files without DRM are starting to become available for download from several labels, are you ready for an audiophile music server?

On January 4, <I>BusinessWeek.com</I> <A HREF="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2008/tc2008013_398775…; that Sony BMG Music Entertainment was dropping digital rights management (DRM) from "at least part of its collection." Sony BMG thus becomes the last of the big four music labels to do so&mdash;following <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/news/123107warner/">Warner Music Group's example</A> by less than a week. EMI and Universal Music Group began the stampede earlier in the year, pioneering DRM-free downloads with <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/100107amazon/">Amazon.com</A&gt;, among other partners.