LATEST ADDITIONS

Is there still some video quality to be wrung out of the DVD format? Will you buy yet another version of <I>The Fifth Element</I> on DVD? <A HREF="http://www.cthe.com">Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment</A> (CTHE) thinks so, announcing last week the launch of "The Superbit Collection," slated for release starting October 9. CTHE says that the Superbit titles will utilize a special high^#150;bit-rate digital encoding process which "optimizes video quality" while offering a choice of both DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

Life is short. Why shouldn't you treat yourself to a porterhouse and a bottle of merlot now and then? And why not enjoy decent speakers, too? In a world of surround sound speaker systems priced around $1,000, it's easy to forget that there's a parallel universe populated by people who spend a little more money and get a lot better sound.

When Dr. Amar Bose visited the magazine where I worked in the early 1990s, he teased staffers by hiding under a cloth the source of the luxurious-sounding music filling the room. Moments later he revealed that it was actually emanating from an unassuming clock radio. Since then, the Bose Wave radio has landed on countless tabletops and nightstands.