LATEST ADDITIONS

The popular condensation of Darwin's theory of evolution is "adapt or die." The phrase could certainly have been addressed to the music-industry establishment by any one of four Internet entrepreneurs in a public discussion last week at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club. The four---Gerry Kearby of <A HREF="http://www.liquidaudio.com/">Liquid Audio</A>, Gene Hoffman of <A HREF="http://www.goodnoise.com/">GoodNoise</A&gt;, Arnold Brown of <A HREF="http://www.audioexplosion.com/">AudioExplosion</A&gt;, and Andrew Keen of <A HREF="http://www.audiocafe.com/">Audiocafe.com</A>---gathered at the public affairs forum Tuesday evening, February 22, for a spirited discussion of "The Future of Music Distribution."

Newcomer Revel has been on a roll lately, piling up accolades all around for its new line of loudspeakers. Larry Greenhill takes a look at the recently unveiled <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/96/">Revel Salon</A> and explains how it compares to the Sydney Opera House. "Did the Salon meet its design goals of timbral accuracy, low distortion, and lack of dynamic compression?" Read all about it in Greenhill's report.

Several weeks back, the music industry's fear of MP3 audio technology came to a head with the release of Diamond Multimedia's Rio playback device. (See <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10324/">previous</A&gt; and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10389/">related</A&gt; stories.) The <A HREF="http://www.riaa.com">Recording Industry Association of America</A> then announced a new plan, called the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI; see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10338/">previous article</A>), in an effort to bring the music and audio-technology industries together to solve the problem of digital music piracy.

I've heard it all a thousand times before:

"More power!!!"

Bill Gates would have you believe we live in a plug'n'play world. Apple has proselytized same since day one. But I'm here to tell you it just isn't so for high-end audio. The orientation of a component's AC plug—even the quality of the wall receptacle itself—affects the sound! Oh no, Mr. Bill, not something else to futz with! Will it never end?

We noted from last week's results that many of you do play instruments for fun and fortune. But several of you wondered why there were no categories for sound engineers, audio manufacturers, etc.