Our 10 Best Software Award winners.

Nothing less than our picks for the best demo material of the past year.

MusicGiants and iTrax give Internet music downloads an audiophile makeover

Say what you will about the ethical and legal issues surrounding peer-to-peer music trading, but back in the good old days of Napster, Gnutella and other such illicit music download services, sound quality mattered.

Within half an hour of Tweeting the fact that I finally got my paws on the new stereo Beatles remasters this week, my email inbox was clogged with the same question repeated practically ad infinitum: “So... don’t leave me hanging. How do they sound?” The ellipses were often stretched to the point of abuse, and the question marks ranged from solitary to the obscene, but I read that exactly question so many times I almost started to have Tweet remorse

Honestly, though, who doesn’t want to know how these discs sound? So I’ll cut to the chase and tell you all what I told them:

Why just listen when you can watch? Combining the musical with the visual enhances the experience far beyond what you get from CDs, and the better of the 5.1-channel surround mixes found on many DVDs make you and your guests feel like you're right there in the audience.

Digital hi-fi never really went away, but it’s back and better than ever after taking a bit of a beating.

If your golden ears have shied away from the digital domain before, though, it’s time for another listen. Not only are old formats like SACD finally reaching their full potential thanks to pure digital interconnectivity, the new high-resolution audio formats found on Blu-ray are making access to eerily  high-fidelity music playback easier than ever.

Looking for some sweet surround sound music to show off your system? Stop looking for discs and start looking at internet downloads.

If you’re still looking for great high-resolution, multichannel music Show-Offs on disc, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you’re looking in the wrong place. These days, digital distribution via the internet has risen from the ashes of DVD-Audio and SACD as the format of choice for discerning audiophiles in need of a 5.1 fix.

Avoid the crowds and get your money’s worth with these spectacular concerts on Blu-ray.  

I’ve just about done with concerts.Not that I don’t love live music—nothing compares to being in the same room with talented musicians doing their thing—but it's just not worth the hassle anymore.

Where is the joy in paying $250 for a nosebleed seat, only to have to strain to hear the music over all of the Chatty Cathys, while some old drunk dude in a two-sizes-too-small Motorhead T-shirt spills Bud in your lap? With the advent of Blu-ray, I honestly cannot find a reasonable answer to that question.

An Abundance of Riches!  

Vinyl is having something of a resurgence, being pretty much the only category of physical media in the music industry currently showing growth.

Having previously reported on the sonic benefits available to those of us who spin the old fashioned vinyl LP, I would be remiss if I failed to call to your attention several of the titles which have been recently reissued on vinyl.