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Following the tragic events of September 11 last year, Audio">http://www.audioasylum.com">Audio Asylum and Audiogonhttp://www.audiogon.com">Audiogon; co-sponsored a charity">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11141/">charity auction of audio equipment to benefit the NY Firefighters' Fund and other related charities. Manufacturers, dealers, magazine writers and editors, and audiophiles donated equipment, recordings, and memorabilia for sale, and as reported">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11159/">reported on this website, the auction ultimately raised almost $175,000 for 9/11-related charities.

John Robinson Pierce, a wide-ranging engineer, inventor, writer, and psychoacoustics researcher, died April 2 at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, CA. The cause of death was complications from pneumonia. Pierce was 92.

Analog audio electronics are approaching "maturity," a state eventually achieved by most technologies, in which almost all the great discoveries have been made and progress becomes a process of increasingly arcane refinements. Digital audio is in no such danger, as evidenced by three new product announcements made the first week of April.

High-end audio and home-theater enthusiasts attending Home">http://www.homeentertainment-expo.com">Home Entertainment 2002, The Hi-Fi and Home Theater Event in New York City on May 31–June 2, 2002, will have an opportunity to participate in a series of interactive seminars and panel discussions on the latest advances in technology—all included with the price of admission.

Back in September of 1986, the KEF">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/550/">KEF R107 loudspeaker represented the flagship of KEF's much admired Reference Series. Dick Olsher and a variety of other Stereophile scribes profile this important audio achievement over the course of five years, wrapping up with Tom Norton's 1995 review of the R107/2 "Raymond Cooke Signature Edition."

Madrigal's">http://www.madrigal.com">Madrigal's Proceed line of high-end audio products will be phased out some time later this year, according to an April 3 press release.

At the recently concluded SAE-CEA Digital Car Conference in Detroit, representatives of the recording industry joined Panasonichttp://www.panasonic.com">Panasonic; for a DVD-Audio love-fest hailing the format as the "in-car music delivery system of the future." Panasonic's automotive electronics division used the conference and exhibition to introduce and demonstrate its first mobile DVD-Audio systems for OEM distribution. The company also hosted seminars exploring how it imagines DVD-Audio will specifically apply to and benefit the automobile industry.