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What happens to your old audio components? We're asking Stereophile readers that">http://cgi.stereophile.com/cgi-bin/displayvote.cgi">that very question this week, but the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has already studied the habits of general consumers and found that most unwanted consumer electronics go to secondary users, not into America's waste stream.

This week, XM Satellite Radio launches Classical Confidential, a series of hour-long artist profiles. Modeled after XM's Artist Confidential series, in which listeners can get to know high-profile artists "up close and personal," per XM, the new show's first installment features an hour with Sony BMG's favorite male violinist, the sweet-toned, extremely gifted Joshua Bell. Subsequent shows will feature the magnificent mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli and conductor Leonard Slatkin.

Gerhard Feldmann’s Bösendorfer New York is partnering with the Jazz Foundation of America to donate the legendary "Blue Note" Bösendorfer to the JFA's inaugural auction benefit, which will be held November 16 at the B.B. King Blues Club and Grill in New York City. Auction proceeds will support JFA non-profit programs, especially working gigs and educational programs for victims of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

In an era when music as instant entertainment enjoys increasing dominance over music as art, cellular phones have emerged as the latest">http://www.stereophile.com/news/101005upod/">latest purveyor of music on demand. Issues of sound quality mean little when the goal is to accumulate more and more files at an ever-accelerating pace and have ever easier access to those files.

Want to improve your hearing? Have someone tickle your toes, or lightly stroke the palm of your hand. Sounds crazy, but it works, and things get even weirder.

Ray Samuels Audio, long well-regarded for its tube-based home audio components, is developing a reputation for its portable designs, too. After reviewing the SR-71http://stereophile.com/headphones/905ray/">SR-71;, I figured Samuels couldn't make things any smaller.

Efforts to restrict the ways consumers use music they have purchased continue unabated. SunnCommhttp://www.sunncomm.com">SunnComm; (along with its sales and marketing arm MediaMaxhttp://www.mediamaxtechnology.com">MediaMax;) has announced that its "newest patent-pending passive technology makes it even more difficult to bypass or 'hack' the copy protection structure contained on the MediaMax CDs."