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Satellite radio services Siriushttp://www.siriusradio.com">Sirius; and XMhttp://www.xmradio.com">XM; both appear headed for a healthy future. The companies both report robust growth in new subscribers. Sweetheart deals with automakers and car rental agencies will expose ever-increasing numbers of consumers to the benefits of commercial-free music.

Now is clearly crunch time for satellite radio. In the last year alone, over one million new subscribers have been added to front-runner XM">http://www.xmradio.com">XM Satellite Radio's service, bringing its total to approximately 1.4 million. The company projects that it will reach a total of 2.4 million subscribers by the end of 2004, thus ensuring its survival.

While both XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio have been growing their subscriber bases (almost 8 million for each), Wall Street has remained unimpressed. Both firms ended 2006 with stock prices that were approximately half their 2006 levels (Sirius at $3.54 and XM at $14.45).

There's a new drive-unit manufacturing company on the block, but it's really just the same old guys who brought you VIFA, ScanSpeak, and DST—the original pros from Dover, in other words.

Enhanced Compact Discs (ECDs) are one of a host of hybrids and mutations popping up in the garden of digital infotainment. Many ECDs have added biographical text, still pictures, short video clips, and garish graphics to bulk up the content of basic music CDs. Others provide links to fan clubs, to an artist's website, or to the record label's home page. Most such efforts could be categorized as "art for art's sake"---experimental projects undertaken without any clear idea as to how the finished product will be used. "Value added" is usually the justification, but rarely the result.

The compact disc has given rise to all sorts of questionable accessories: magic pens with green ink, reflective stickers, rim dampers, absorbent mats, spindle weights, cleaners, buffers, polishers, and demagnetizers. It's amazing how many products are needed to make perfect sound perfect.

Scott McGowan has left PS Audio to form Sprout HiFi, a new company built around a next-generation Sprout amplifier. The first Sprout HiFi product, a revamped version of the Sprout100, is projected for 2026, with email sign-ups open now.