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Financially, the winter months have been all over the map. Some electronics companies have reported upswingshttp://www.stereophile.com/news/030804retailing/">upswings; in revenue, but others are experiencing a decrease.

From the March 2004 issue, Michael Fremer goes a couple rounds with the Theta">http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/304theta">Theta Digital Enterprise monoblock power amplifier, exclaiming, "Monoblock power amplifiers seem to be moving in and out of my listening room faster than green-onion salsa from Chi-Chi's." So how does the Theta stand up to the competition? MF lays it out.

Launched with a bang last April, Apple">http://apple.com">Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store has steadily gained popularity with music fans, but it won't reach its projected goal of selling 100 million songs online within its first year.

Some months back, a poll at the Naxos of America websitehttp://www.naxos.com">website; asked visitors about their preferences among high-resolution and multichannel formats. At that time, Naxos had been releasing DVD-As (and DVDs) in the US, but only released SACDs elsewhere.

Starbucks is taking its signature compilation CDs to the next level—the personal one.

From the March 2004 issue, John Atkinson finally gets to listen to the Sonus">http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/304sonus">Sonus Faber Cremona loudspeaker and explains, "it took rather longer than I had expected to set the Cremonas up in my listening room. But, like everything worth experiencing, the wait was worth it."

Audiophiles interested in experimenting with upconverting the digital data on their CDs to higher resolutions will find a recent announcement from the Netherlands of interest. Dutch company Eximiushttp://www.eximius.nl">Eximius; revealed last week a new product tagged "DVD+Audio Creator" for converting CDs to either upsampled PCM or compressed MP2 files.