LATEST ADDITIONS

New Year's Day, 2003 may be a day of special celebration for sports and movie fans. Ten of the nation's biggest cable providers have pledged to begin delivering digital signals by then, according to a May 2 report by Bill McConnell in the trade journal <I>Broadcasting and Cable</I>.

<A HREF="http://www.showtimenetworks.com/">Showtime Networks</A> must be on an HDTV roll. On the heels of its recent announcement about adding its high definition offerings to the DirecTV service, the premium channel broadcaster announced more HDTV programming this week, along with an audio upgrade.

John Lennon's line in "Come Together"&mdash;"Got to be good-looking 'cause he's so hard to see"&mdash;sums up the sleek, shapely appearance of Sonus Faber's new Grand Piano Home L/R speaker. With its warm, leatherette-wrapped front and rear baffles and sculpted black-lacquer-like side cheeks, the gently sloping design exudes European elegance even as it seems to disappear under its own good looks.

Until recently, no self-respecting home theater nut would even consider giving a permanent berth to a videogame console in his main system. But Microsoft's Xbox ($299) is suddenly finding itself cohabiting with A/V gear on component racks across the country.