What is your most trusted evaluation disc?
One more question about evaluating audio products: What single audio disc is the most valuable tool you use to evaluate components?
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Hollings Bill: Electronic Big Brother?
How likely would you be to buy a computer, TV, or DVD player knowing that it could monitor your activities and automatically report possible copyright violations to the federal government? That's one of the nightmare scenarios that could evolve from the proposed Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA), drafted by Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings and strongly backed by Walt Disney Company and other members of the <A HREF="http://www.mpaa.org">Motion Picture Association of America</A>.
Every New CD to be Restricted?
Let's try to imagine the ideal music-buying landscape from a record company's point of view. As distasteful as this may seem to an ever-growing legion of unhappy audiophiles and music fans, it can go a long way towards explaining why the major labels appear to suddenly be at war with their customers.
IFPI: Music Sales Off Worldwide
The international music industry is once again singing the blues, and CD burning is the refrain.
Added to the Archives This Week
John Atkinson wrestles with the fabled <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/420/">YBA 2 HC power amplifier</A> to uncover its very essence. Can this meticulous design, engineered (some might say over-engineered) by Yves-Bernard André deliver the audio goods?
Howard Mandel of Altis Audio Passes Away
It is with great sadness that I report that Howard Mandel, the main man of manufacturer Altis Audio, passed away on September 27 after a long battle with, I believe, leukemia. No age was given in his obituary in the <I>Danbury News Times</I> (CT), but I believe Howard was in his early 50s.
The Fifth Element #4
If you've got a thousand dollars to spend, I think asking for advice in choosing between the Coriolis Effect Deluxe Rev.3.2 power cord and the Shamelessly Hosing Neither Balanced Nor Unbalanced Tofu-Filled Mystical interconnect (footnote 1) is usually asking the wrong question.
Merlin Music Systems VSM Millennium loudspeaker system
<I>"Viagra couldn't cure our voltage droop!"</I>
ELAC Technische Software CARA 2.0 computer program
I have been a proponent of methodical modeling and room analysis as aids in setting up audio systems and rooms. They work hand in hand: Modeling predicts a feasible room arrangement, and analysis, along with careful listening, determines how close the outcome is to that predicted. Of course, there should always be another round of modeling to see if the current setup can be improved with more work. The spiral continues, toward, one hopes, perfection.
TacT Audio RCS 2.0 digital equalizer/preamplifier
I anticipated the installation of the TacT Audio RCS 2.0 room-correction processor with mixed emotions—I already liked my system and room, and such a device threatened to make all my studied efforts trivial. What if one might use <I>any</I> decent amps and speakers, cables that were merely conductive, and no room treatment at all? And what if, on top of that, you could just put them wherever your significant other thought they looked right? What if all the magic you needed was contained in this box? Scary.