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Just as the Asian economic crisis a few years ago dealt a big blow to American high-end audio manufacturers, the slowing American economy is causing repercussions for Japanese companies.

Melville, NY–based manufacturer http://www.josephaudio.com"> Joseph Audio announced September 1 that the company was "pleased to accept the 'Best Sound at Show' award as determined by the votes of attendees" at the Home Entertainment 2001 event held in May at the NY Hilton. "We're deeply grateful that so many at the show felt that our RM33si Signature at $7500/pair was worthy of such an honor," said company president Jeff">mailto:Josephaud@aol.com">Jeff Joseph.

In his review of the Conrad-Johnson">http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/403/">Conrad-Johnson Premier Eleven power amplifier, Wes Phillips comes clean and admits that he loves to be seduced by sound. Phillips writes, "Now, I'm not proposing that we embrace coloration . . . but the removal of all pleasure-producing tonalities doesn't necessarily make for increased realism."

For many audiophiles, the reasonably priced "universal" DVD-Audio/SACD/CD player is the magic combination that will trigger a jump into the new high-resolution audio formats. As an answer to those universal player prayers, Wolfson">http://www.wolfsonmicro.com">Wolfson Microelectronics, UK–based developer of audio ICs for multimedia and communications applications, announced the introduction of two new six-channel audio DAC chips last week—one of which brings the contentious formats together in one box.

Now that satellite radio services XM">http://www.xmradio.com">XM Radio and Sirius">http://www.siriusradio.com">Sirius Radio have their "birds" in position, they are encountering a slew of unexpected roadblocks here on earth. Among the problems: loss of signal in tunnels and urban canyons, interference with wireless communications, and a lighting technology that emits strong radio waves close to the broadcasters' assigned bands.

Don't smirk, but a lot of audiophiles, including this writer and our esteemed editor John Atkinson, spend a considerable amount of time listening to music on their computers, especially at work. In fact, the results from our recent">http://www.stereophile.com/showvote.cgi?208">recent online poll about computers and listening habits indicate that at least 60% of our readers listen this way as well, with half of those using their PCs for music playback "quite often."

Have the format wars begun in earnest? Only a few days after Warner Brothers announced the DVD-Audio release of Paul Simon's You're the One, Universal">http://www.umusic.com">Universal Music Group announced its plan to release titles in the Super Audio CD format.