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.

Our 10 Best Software Award winners.

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

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.

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.

Anyone who says time travel is impossible obviously isn't a magazine collector. I recently thumbed through the premiere issue of Home Entertainment (from way back in the winter of 2002), and scattered throughout its pages I found quite a few surprises: bulky floorstanding rear-projection TVs, massive three-gun CRT projectors all over the place, and—what's this?—a Show-Offs column with nary a theme in sight.

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.

Bill Cosby once said, "I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone." Apparently, the Coz never met Mark Waldrep, founder of AIX Records, who has created something for everyone with his magical little Los Angeles-based label.

Could Monster Music’s SuperDisc be the salvation of surround-sound music?