LATEST ADDITIONS

High-end audio has always been a tricky business, and in recent years it's become more so. Home theater is pulling in one direction, and MP3, iPods, and the Internet are pulling in another. And customer expectations—not just of sound quality, but also of usability and integration into their space and lives—are spiraling upward. The companies that are thriving amid these pressures seem to have adopted one of two strategies: either they focus more narrowly and try to convince the world to accept their vision, or they evolve their products in an attempt to anticipate the market.

Never content to rest on its laurels, <A HREF="http://www.ti.com/sc04141">Texas Instruments</A> continues to push the boundaries of chip performance, not only in the digital and video realms, but in the analog audio domain as well.

TrueSound Lounge: Headphone giant <A HREF="www.sennheiserusa.com">Sennheiser</A&gt; has opened an online music destination, the Sennheiser <A HREF="http://www.truesoundlounge.com">"TrueSound
Lounge</A>", providing web-surfers an entertaining selection of new music from
company-supported emerging artists like Sugarcult and Jody Whitesides. The site also provides "fun, quick-witted web-video shorts from top commercial filmmakers and producers, fruits of the Sennheiser Invitational Film Project," and "concise info on Sennheiser's unequalled selection of personal listening products," according to a recent announcement.

The proposed merger of the music divisions of Sony Corporation and Bertelsmann AG may win approval from European Union regulators, according to reports from Brussels on June 18.

On June 16, the US <A HREF="http://www.cpsc.gov">Consumer Product Safety Commission</A> (CPSC) announced a product recall in voluntary cooperation with equipment manufacturer and distributor <A HREF="http://www.linn.co.uk/">Linn</A&gt;. The notice asks that consumers stop using the recalled products immediately, unless otherwise instructed.

An argument could be made that most speakers are designed to sound best with their grilles intact, while others might reason that anything in front of a tweeter has got to be bad. Reader Gerald Neily wants to know if you prefer to listen with your speaker grilles on or off.

I recently bought a turntable, the first I've owned in about 15 years. I had sold my vinyl collection&mdash;a mix of classic rock, early 1980s pop, and the odd jazz or classical LP&mdash;when I was in grad school, for economic reasons: I needed the money for rent, or food, or beer, or something. Nor do I know what happened to my old plastic turntable; more than likely, I left it curbside for anyone strolling by who was able to appreciate its value.