LATEST ADDITIONS

I remember when Ferraris and Maseratis topped out around 400 ponies, but, nowadays, that much oomph is available in Ford Mustangs. Blisteringly fast rides have never been cheaper, and, over in the consumer electronics world, the speed with which technology migrates from bleeding-edge surround processors to $500 A/V receivers demonstrates the benefits of trickle-down engineering. But the quality gap between high-end and affordable speakers hasn't appreciably narrowed, until now. Wharfedale's real-world-priced Pacific Evolution Series speakers are engineered like far more expensive speakers.

Unless you've been in a cave for the last decade, you already know that audio is rapidly steamrolling toward multichannel forms. Evidence is abundant on both the software and hardware fronts. These days, you'll be hard-pressed to find a modern movie in stereo on any medium outside of television. Music probably has years to go before its stereo form becomes esoteric, but the writing may be on the wall. As for hardware, try finding any electronics that don't support some multichannel form or another—if not several—anywhere but the smallest specialty shelves. Whether stereophiles like it or not, multichannel is as embedded in audio's future as digital coding itself.

<B>Sony Pictures Goes <I>Full Throttle</I> On Blu-ray</B>
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On Friday Sony Pictures Home Entertainment made a curious announcement that it had authored its first full-length Blu-ray Disc in 1920x1080 high definition, and was shipping the disc to manufacturers of Blu-ray players for testing. Following Holt's Law that the technical quality of a piece of software is inversely proportionate to its artistic merit, this landmark Blu-ray title is none other than the box office disappointment <I>Charlie's Angel's: Full Throttle</I>.