Oh my! Great news week. Gizmodo dishes the dirt on Dre and Monster. Dre sues Yamaha, Monster sues Dolby---sheesh! Onkyo releases new cans. Meridian puts their brains in a tiny aluminum tube. And 1964 Ears has a cool new video.

Available Now
The app is available right now for free download to your iPad in the iTunes store. In iTunes, search for "Stereophile Recommended Components" or follow this link to the iTunes store from your web browser.

This app includes all current Recomended Components as listed in the recent issue of Stereophile as well as additional ratings and listings that could not fit in the print version. There are over 700 component rankings in all and the app is compatible with all iPad hardware versions including retina displays.

Have you ever struggled through a long string of purchases to find just the right headphone for you? Ever wonder what some of the top-end headphones can deliver? Ever think to yourself, "Meh, headphones. How good can it be?" Well...now you can find out. The Cable Company makes a lovely offering.

I was merrily listening to Silent Strike (merrily may be the wrong word to use with them) on MOG through my Squeeze Server, when all of a sudden the music stopped. I look at my iPad, which is running iPeng to control everything, and things just start disappearing. I push the MOG button and a cryptic message shows up to reconfigure MOG on mysqueezebox.com. After a bit of fumbling, 'cuz everything looked fine, I pointed my browser at mog ... and was greeted with a bunch of weird posts about their service interuption.

Dontcha just love a company with a sense of humor?

The web is abuzz with the news: a little monster has been unleashed upon the headphone market as Kevin Lee, son of Monster's Head Monster Noel Lee, breaks out on his own to start a new headphone company "SOL Republic."

There is a story in Headphonedom that will not go away … ever: The Dangers of Headphone Listening. Studies show significant increases in hearing damage … especially to youngsters who tend to listen very loud. Other than the iPod’s new ability for parents to set a volume limit on the device, little has come along to mitigate the problem other than draconian legislative measures trying to control volume limits on devices. (Which is ridiculous in my view both from a personal liberty standpoint, and from the fact that it makes portable devices less able to drive a variety of aftermarket headphones.)

Well, Stephen Ambrose claims to have solved the problem ...

... and my skeptomometer has been beeping like crazy. Let’s have a look …