"Whole-house entertainment systems" and "ease of use" may be anathema for many audiophiles, but they bring joy to the lives of many music lovers—as they seem to do for manufacturers with a keen eye on the bottom line.
Napster may be down for the count, but audio file-sharing is more popular than ever, according to a study released October 10 by research firm Jupiter Media Metrix Inc.
E-mail spam just got a lot noisier thanks to AT&T's a2b music and BMG Entertainment. (See previous stories 1, 2.) Last week, they announced that BMG will deliver the first "mass communication" of a2b MAIL to the consumer databases of each of its websites, www.bugjuice.com (alternative and rock music), www.peeps.com (urban music), and www.twangthis.com (country music).
Saturday, February 10, 10am3pm, Northern Audio (3003 Babcock Boulevard, Pittsburgh, PA 15237) welcomes Mike Marko of Nordost Corporation and Bob Scranton of Cambridge Audio for their "2018 Audio Innovations" seminar. Mr. Marko will provide the latest product demonstrations and cable comparisons, while Mr. Scranton will present how the right gear makes music lovers' lives better.
Command Performance AV (115 Park Avenue, Suite 2, Falls Church, VA 22046) is holding a Clearaudio event on Saturday December 12 from noon5pm. Clearaudio founder, Peter Suchy, will be demonstrating the one-of-kind Clearaudio Statement turntable (right) along with the Goldfinger Cartridge and Absolute Phono. This will be the first showing of the new Statement turntable on the East Coast. To highlight the capabilities of the Statement, Garth Leerer and Jesse Luna of Musical Surroundings will be demonstrating the brand-new Eclipse versions of the Aesthetix electronics.
Wednesday, November 16, from 69pm, Command Performance AV (115 Park Avenue, Suite 2, Falls Church, VA 22046) is holding a Hegel Music Systems Event. Guest presenters will be Anders Ertzeid, Hegel's VP of Marketing and Sales, and Eileen Gosvig, Hegel's US Sales Manager, who will demonstrate the Rost integrated amp with enhanced Apple Airplay and the new Mohican CD player ($5000, above), which Art Dudley wrote about in his report from the recent New York Audio Show. Refreshments will be served.
"Is it wrong to love it for its physical beauty?" asks Michael Lavorgna of Astell&Kern's extraordinary (and expensive) AK240 portable file player, which gets the star treatment on the November 2014 issue's cover. But as he also found it a joy to listen to, the question becomes moot . . .
...goes the song from the Middle Ages and no, it isn't really true in the month of Apriling. But the May issue of Stereophile is about to hit newsstands, mailboxes, and tables as we write and it is, we modestly claim, one heck of an issue!
The May 2014 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands. With High-Resolution Audio poised to go mainstream, the issue features Sony's $2000 HAP-Z1ES file player on its cover. Kalman Rubinson takes the Sony through its paces summing up that the "audiophile quality" Sony "has the potential to become a gateway product for the mass market of portable-player users."
Our June 2014 issue is now on newsstands, with MBL's cool-running, hot-sounding Corona C15 amplifier on its cover. The C15 combines a class-D output stage with a hefty linear power supply to produce performance that finally convinced John Atkinson that class-D designs need not produce compromised sound quality. JA also outs his hearing ability on the line by reviewing EnigmAcoustics' cost-no-object electrostatic supertweeter. The bulk of the Sopranino's output lies above the venerable JA's hearing limit, so did he hear any improvement? Read the review to find out...