Visit any major metropolitan city, and chances are you'll eventually stumble upon vendors selling pirate CDs from outdoor tables, often for as little as $5 each. But for the suburban resident in the US, flea markets are where the pirate action is.
Wireless local audio/video networks and surround sound systems have long been one of the electronics industry's holy grails, given the fact that a major cost in installing home theaters or whole-house audio systems is the wiring. The market potential is so great that major chipmakers have invested enormous amounts of research in developing products that would enable easy placement of audio and video systems anywhere in a home without the need for dedicated wiring.
<A HREF="http://www.warnermusic.com">Warner Music Group</A> is supporting efforts by the DVD Forum to create a hybrid dual-layer CD/DVD-audio disc, according to reports from New York the first week of December. WMG, a unit of AOL Time Warner, is one of the music industry's principal backers of the DVD-Audio format.
Want your kids to grow up smarter? Have them study music. Want to hold off the mental ravages of old age? Listen to music. Want to get high (legally), feel ecstatic, make your pain disappear? Music is the cure for what ails you.
Sam Tellig and Kalman Rubinson each take a run at the unique <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/729/">PS Audio HCA-2 power amplifier</A> to see what it's made of. Will Tellig and Rubinson agree on the HCA-2's worth? Furthermore, what do the odd results of John Atkinson's measurements mean?
The Consumer Electronic Association's (CEA) Gary Shapiro is known for maintaining an ever-optimistic stance on the progress of home entertainment, and a recent keynote at the Semiconductor Market Outlook Conference earlier this month provided an opportunity for him to reveal his top predictions for the future.
"Suicide junctions," I calls 'em. The ones with which I'm most familiar are on I-278, just north of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in Brooklyn, New York, and along North Mopac in Austin, Texas, but they must exist all over the US. Traffic about to enter the freeway must first cross the line of faster-traveling offcoming cars, the intersection's on- and off-ramps crossing in a shallow <B>X</B>.
<B>COLDPLAY: <I>A Rush of Blood to the Head</I></B><BR> Capitol 5 40504 2 (CD). 2002. Coldplay, Ken Nelson, prods.; Mark Phythian, Ken Phythian, engs.; Rik Simpson, Jon Withnal, Ben Thackeray, Jon Bailey, Andrea Wright, asst. engs. AAD? TT: 54:14<BR> Performance <B>****½</B><BR> Sonics <B>****</B>
The December issue sees <I>Stereophile</I> publish its 2002 "Products of theYear" (<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/showarchives.cgi?724">added to the website</A> this week). The reviewers and editor have made their choices, so what are yours?