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Editor's Note: This is Part Two of a six-part series from reader Hervé Delétraz of Switzerland, who is chronicling the development of his DIY (do-it-yourself) audio amplifier. (Part One is herehttp://www.stereophile.com/news/10825/">here;.)

Dynaudio US's president, Al Filippelli, tells Wes Phillips that "Dynaudio speakers are a lot like the Danes who make them. They don't look all that fancy, but they tell the truth and they get the job done. To a lot of audiophiles, that's boring. But there are a lot of people who have been looking for those qualities in a loudspeaker, and for them, boring can be cause for excitement." Phillips takes an in-depth look at the Dynaudio">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/262/">Dynaudio Contour 3.3 loudspeaker to determine if "boring" can make him happy.

Spotting another online niche, Hifi.comhttp://www.Hifi.com">Hifi.com; announced the debut of CustomHifi.comhttp://www.CustomHifi.com">CustomHifi.com; last week. The new site is aimed at custom installers. HiFi.com claims that CustomHifi.com is the first "comprehensive national, Internet-centric marketplace to offer custom electronic design and installation professionals access to leading audio/video products, information, and installation support."

Back in 1997, DVD-Audio was still miles away—and it may still be! But, as John Atkinson writes, "After a decade of stability, with slow but steady improvement in the quality of 16-bit/44.1kHz audio, the cry among audio engineers is now '24/96!'—meaning 24-bit data sampled at 96kHz. Not coincidentally, DVD offers audiophiles a medium with the potential for playing back music encoded at this new mastering standard." The dCS">http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/259/">dCS Elgar D/A processor was one of the first consumer units able to decode 24/96, and still stands as a benchmark product. JA gives the details.

Editor's Note: There is a large contingent of Stereophile readers who design and build their own equipment—the DIY (do it yourself) crowd. Hervé Delétraz from Switzerland has been e-mailing us photos and stories over the last year about his own ambitious DIY amplifier design, so we asked him if he'd be willing to share a chronicle of his progress, starting from the beginning. This is the first in a six-part series written by Mr. Delétraz.

Last week, BMG">http://www.bmgentertainment.com/">BMG Entertainment, the music and entertainment division of Bertelsmann">http://www.bertelsmann.de/">Bertelsmann AG, revealed that it will join several other major labels (see previous stories EMIhttp://www.stereophile.com/news/10798/">EMI; and Universalhttp://www.stereophile.com/news/10814/">Universal;) by bringing its own digital downloads to the Internet this September. The company says that it will start with approximately 50 songs and 50 complete albums, to be made available via several retail Web outlets at prices ranging from $1.98 to $3.49 per song and from $9.98 to $16.98 per album.

The Secure">http://www.sdmi.org/">Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) will soon move into Phase II of its evaluation of digital audio watermarking, following listening tests conducted in early July at Sony's Whitfield Street Studios in London and administered by Sony VP of engineering Malcolm Davidson. A soon-to-be-published report from Paul Jessop of the International">http://www.ifpi.org/">International Federation of Phonograph Industries reveals that the participants in the tests—almost all of them audio-industry professionals or journalists—averaged just slightly better than 50% in their abilities to detect the watermarks.