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Who says classical music is having trouble finding a contemporary audience? According to the latest Arbitronhttp://www.arbitron.com/">Arbitron; webcast ratings, for December, 2000, classical music and internet-only webcaster Beethoven.comhttp://www.beethoven.com">Beethoven.com; ranked number one with the most aggregate tuning hours (ATH) for the month. ATH describes the sum total of all hours that listeners tune to a given channel.

Is there a computer in your audio future? Meridianhttp://www.meridian-audio.com/">Meridian; thinks so. An expensive new flagship disc player hints at things to come at more affordable prices. Working at the far edge of the digital playback frontier, the UK company has just announced its 800">http://www.meridian-audio.com/p_800s.htm">800 Reference, a new combination CD/DVD player, built like a computer, that takes digital audio and video playback to a new level. The player "sets the bar for DVD and CD reproduction," according to a June 16 press release.

According to a report just released by the National">http://www.narm.com">National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM), Digital distribution—particularly streaming technology—will seriously disrupt the music industry, but has the potential to "benefit all segments of the business if companies can leverage their traditional strengths and create compelling consumer value propositions."

Almost six months after purchasing French audio manufacturer Jadis from Jean-Christophe Calmettes, Jérémie Malfroot (shown above) announced a lifetime warranty for the company's output transformers and 10-year warranties on all other parts.

MP3 audio files have quickly become the dominant format for downloading music over the Internet, and have just as quickly raised the ire of music labels and artists looking to protect their musical assets. For example, a petition signed by nearly 400 European recording artists (including Mstislav Rostropovich and Barbara Hendricks) was handed to the European Parliament last Tuesday by French composer Jean-Michel Jarre to protest lax copyright protections exacerbated by digital technology. The petition states, in part, "We want to use new digital technologies like the Internet to create and to deliver our music, but we will only feel confident doing so if we know that the laws are there to stop our works falling victim to pirates."

Manufacturers sometimes suspect that they have been intentionally slighted if they don't get mentioned in a Stereophile show report. The truth is that the overwhelming enormity of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) prevents even the most aggressive journalists from seeing everything. (SGHT editor Tom Norton may be the sole exception.)

An opportunity to return to Sonor Filtronique came sooner than expected: I was invited there for a September 4 new-product launch co-sponsored by AudioQuest, Wilson Audio, Audio Research, and dCS America. Encouraged by the dual prospects of good sound and a chance to enjoy the beautiful city of Montreal without an overcoat, I booked my train ticket right away.