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Flat frequency reponse in an audio component is good, right? Well, maybe not always, explains J. Gordon Holt in Down">http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/138/">Down With Flat! JGH: "Many times in past years I have been impressed by the incredible flatness of the measured high-end response of some speakers. . . . In every such case, I have been equally amazed at how positively awful those loudspeakers sounded—so tipped-up at the high end that I could not enjoy listening to them."

Country music reached the peak of its popularity six years ago, when it claimed 18.7% of the recorded-music audience. Since then, it has steadily declined to its present 14.1%, according to the Recording">http://www.riaa.com/">Recording Industry Association of America's 1998 Consumer Profile. Reasons for the decline include the increasing crossover of country stars into pop and rock styles, a phenomenon that has broadened many artists' reach and made acts like Garth Brooks and Shania Twain household names among folks who may not previously have paid much attention to country. Crossing over, unfortunately, also dilutes the support of traditional music fans. Apart from the twang in the vocals, much current "country" music sounds amazingly like the rock and pop of 10-15 years ago.

It's been a busy week for Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) pioneers Lucent">http://www.lucent.com">Lucent Digital Radio. (See previous">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10463/">previous report.) The company has announced that a new entity, Lucent">http://www.lucent.com/ldr">Lucent Digital Radio, Inc., has been created as a result of an investment by Pequot Capital Management. The new company will be owned by Pequot Capital investors and Lucent Technologies, which will hold a majority ownership stake. Lucent says it will continue to support the new venture and provide ongoing access to research from the company's Bell Labs research and development unit.

Last week, Burr-Brown">http://www.burr-brown.com">Burr-Brown Corporation announced the development of the DSD1700, which the company says is its first Direct Stream Digital (DSD) audio digital-to-analog converter. According to Burr-Brown, the converter is designed for Sony's DSD technology, which is used in Super Audio CD players, professional DSD processors, and DSD mixing consoles.

Former PolyGram Music Group president Roger Ames has been named to head the Warner">http://www.pathfinder.com/corp/wbmusic/index.html">Warner Music Group, parent company Time">http://www.pathfinder.com/corp/tw">Time Warner announced August 16. Warner's music division, formerly the top domestic money-earner, has been stagnant in the past few years. Still one of the top five music conglomerates, it now trails Seagram's Universal Music, Bertelsmann AG, and Sony Music in total business, but retains the #2 spot in total number of albums sold, according to the Wall">http://www.wsj.com/">Wall Street Journal. Warner's foreign business is far weaker.