LATEST ADDITIONS

Rarely has the debut of a new loudspeaker company and its inaugural model created as big a buzz as did Lumen White and their Whitelight speaker at the 2001 Consumer Electronics Show. Driven by Vaic tube amplifiers in one of the larger corner rooms at the Alexis Park Hotel, the big Whitelights had a look and a sound that attracted continuous crowds. Of the questions among audio cognoscenti that I overheard at the end of each day, two of the most common were "Hey, did you hear those Lumen Whites?" and "What? Can you speak louder?"

When it was suggested that I call in on speaker manufacturer RBH Sound during a planned <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/470/">trip to Utah</A> in the fall of 2001, my response was "Who is RBH?" To my embarrassment, the speaker company had not popped up on my radar screen since it was formed in Los Angeles in 1976. However, I had certainly heard some of the speakers they had manufactured for other companies, most notably the McIntosh models of the early 1980s, with their line arrays of dome tweeters.

<B>DAVE ALVIN & THE GUILTY MEN: <I>Out in California</I></B><BR> Hightone HCD8144 (CD). 2002. Dave Alvin, prod.; Mark Linnett, prod., eng. AAD? TT: 76:00<BR> Performance <B>****&#189;</B><BR> Sonics <B>****</B>

<I>Revolutionary</I> is a word that's tossed around all too lightly in the world of audio. The understandable impulse to tout every new development as a quantum leap forward in sound reproduction has made it difficult to sort out the evolutionary from the truly groundbreaking. And there's not that much left to do in amplifier design that is worthy of being described as "revolutionary," or so it seems. Vacuum-tube circuitry has been thoroughly understood since the late 1940s, and 40 years of development of solid-state has rendered it, in its finest implementations, a worthy competitor and alternative to the venerable tube.

In last week's vote, reader Ken said that, if we're going to ask if a manufacturer's website is important, we should recognize the best ones. So which manufacturer websites stand out as particularly great, in your opinion?

We've heard the sad tales from the record labels and distributors about their ever-weakening music sales, but there are other players in the market who are also feeling the pinch: retailers.

A "victory for consumers" may be a windfall for class-action attorneys and 41 states participating in a <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10818/">price-fixing case</A> against the music industry. Some schools and public libraries may also benefit.

Not all Washington lawmakers are on the Hollywood payroll. Some even risk offending Big Entertainment by upholding their sworn duty to protect their constituents' interests. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) is such a legislator.

If you peer back into audio history, you'll discover that long-term formats are generally established at the mass-market level and then perfected or re-invented by those with audiophile inclinations. One could argue that SACD and DVD-A are attempts at turning that rule on its head. But the slow start exhibited by both formats (with the copy-restriction issue a new and rather large stumbling block) indicates that, once again, the mass market needs to get involved before we can really move forward.

The <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/678/">Adcom GFA-555 power amplifier</A> has long been regarded as a classic design and still commands decent prices on the used market. Anthony H. Cordesman and various other <I>Stereophile</I> writers check in with their opinions.