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We begin with a January 1993 article from Robert Harley called The">http://www.stereophile.com/reference/193jitter">The Jitter Game. RH explains, "Clock jitter is a serious and underestimated source of sonic degradation in digital audio. Only recently has jitter begun to get the attention it deserves, both by high-end designers and audio academics."

Audio retail revival: Electronics retailers throughout the US are ramping up their commitment to audio separates, according to a June 21 report by Joseph Palenchar in TWICE (This Week in Consumer Electronics). Palenchar describes the new emphasis on audio components as a response to declining margins on "home theater in a box" (HtiB) systems. Through April of this year, factory-to-dealer audio component sales rose 29.8% to $344.6 million, with April sales up 41.9%, hitting a four-year high of $86.9 million.

Will surround sound rejuvenate the music industry? That's the position many record label execs took when adding the capability to DVD-Audio and SACD years ago. But while they wait for the high-rez formats to catch on, SRS">http://www.srslabs.com">SRS Labs has decided to add multichannel audio to the conventional compact disc.

The US Senate has gotten serious about going after file sharers. On Friday, June 25, senators approved legislation that would allow the Justice Department to impose heavy civil penalties on people found to have shared and/or downloaded copyrighted material over the Internet.

The NHT Xd DSP powered speaker demo was held at the Plaza Hotel in New York City last week and representatives from NHTwww.nhthifi.com">NHT; and its supporting cast, DEQXhttp://www.deqx.com/">DEQX; and PowerPhysicshttp://www.PowerPhysics.com/">PowerPhysics;, opened by explaining the philosophy behind the new product and the essential components they each contributed (also see previoushttp://www.stereophile.com/news/022304nht/index.html">previous;).

TrueSound Lounge: Headphone giant Sennheiserwww.sennheiserusa.com">Sennheiser; has opened an online music destination, the Sennheiser "TrueSound">http://www.truesoundlounge.com">"TrueSound
Lounge", providing web-surfers an entertaining selection of new music from
company-supported emerging artists like Sugarcult and Jody Whitesides. The site also provides "fun, quick-witted web-video shorts from top commercial filmmakers and producers, fruits of the Sennheiser Invitational Film Project," and "concise info on Sennheiser's unequalled selection of personal listening products," according to a recent announcement.

The RIAAhttp://www.riaa.org">RIAA; foresees that digital audio broadcasting (DAB) will represent a fundamental change in the radio industry. "It is not just a means of offering higher quality broadcast sound. DAB could transform radio into a vehicle for the distribution of huge amounts of information in digital form, including recorded music," says the trade organization. As a result, the group is supporting regulatory restraints on digital audio broadcasting (DAB) in reaction to a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Notice of Inquiry (NOI) regarding DAB content control.