Stereophile Staff

Internet music retailer <A HREF="http://www.cdnow.com/">CDnow</A&gt; has formed a partnership with <A HREF="http://www.sony.com/">Sony Corporation</A> and <A HREF="http://www.timewarner.com/">Time Warner</A> to build a music and video retailing behemoth. The July 13 announcement came in the wake of online bookseller <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/">Amazon.com</A>'s recent move into the music market. With the backing of corporate giants Sony and Time Warner, CDnow could be able to mount a challenge to the growing presence of Amazon, which is also expanding into toy sales and consumer electronics.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.semiconductors.com/">Philips Semiconductors</A> announced the CD10 chipset, which the company describes as the world's first two-chip solution to deliver CD-RW (compact disc, re-writeable) compatibility for CD audio players. According to Philips, one chip provides a data amplifier and laser supply circuit, while the other is the digital servo, decoder, and DAC. As a result, Philips claims that the new chipset allows designers to build audio players that can read all forms of CDs without an increase in component count.

The <A HREF="http://www.jeffrowland.com/">Jeff Rowland Design Group</A> is alive and well and in no danger of going out of business. The company was the victim of hackers who recently broke into the company's website and posted a notice to the contrary.

Wes Phillips writes, "I catch John's eye and wonder if he's pondering the same question I am: <I>What were we thinking?</I>" In addition to trying to push forward the limits of getting great sound onto tape, <I>Stereophile</I>'s release of <I>Rhapsody In Blue</I> would offer the public a groundbreaking arrangement of George Gershwin's most popular orchestral work. In "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//features/124/">The <I>Rhapsody</I> Project</A>," Hyperion Knight and John Atkinson join Wes in chronicling their perspectives on the processes leading to this landmark recording.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.ti.com">Texas Instruments</A>, <A HREF="http://www.liquidaudio.com">Liquid Audio</A>, Fraunhofer, and <A HREF="http://www.sandisk.com">SanDisk</A&gt; announced that they've teamed to offer what they describe as "the first complete solution" for the secure downloading of music off the Internet onto portable audio players. The companies say that their programmable DSP-based technology is the first to meet the newly released <A HREF="www.sdmi.org">Secure Digital Music Initiative</A> (SDMI) guidelines for digital music portable devices, and is now available for manufacturers who want to develop secure players in time for Christmas 1999.

Want to start an argument on one of the audio newsgroups? Just mention ABX. Doesn't matter if you're for it, against it, or just curious about what it is---you'll start a fire that might take weeks to burn out. But before audio newsgroups even existed, J. Gordon Holt was probing the usefulness of the ABX Comparator in an "As We See It" column from 1982, "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/121/">The Truth Should Out</A>." His thoughts might surprise you.

Are audiophiles and recording engineers natural adversaries? From the many slings and arrows hurled back and forth between the camps, it would certainly seem so. Robert Harley asks, "But <I>are</I> recording engineers less concerned about sound quality than are audiophiles? If so, why? Isn't someone who has devoted his life to recording music more caring than the hobbyist audiophile? If not, why not?" Read his analysis of the issues in "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/119/">A Clash of Values?</A>" Also included is a lively volley of readers' letters.