Saturday is always the crunch day at the Home Entertainment Show. There are more people in the halls, more bodies in the rooms, and more noise everywhere—and it's wonderful. People here really speak our language: audiogeek spoken here.
<I>The screen door slams<BR>Mary's dress waves</I>—Bruce Springsteen, "Thunder Road" (footnote 1)
As noted in the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/304round">March installment</A> of "Music in the Round," there are so many new multichannel hardware goodies to talk about that we need this bonus appearance of the column just to keep up. Nor do I expect the rush of gear to stop—I've just returned from CES in Las Vegas, where there was lots of new multichannel hardware and software that I will report on in June, including a luscious all-tube analog multichannel preamp. This month I report on a universal disc player, a comparison of Sony's top-of-the-line <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/1203sony">SCD-XA9000ES<…; multichannel SACD player with its respected predecessor, and a multichannel preamp that's almost too good a deal.
<I>"As I was saying before I was interrupted..."</I>—Jack Paar, 1918-2004
"Ah, I see what the problem is. Your ear canals are larger in diameter than normal."
Friday, the first public day of HE2004, was entirely different from the press-only day that preceded it. Friday, the audiophiles arrived and the excitement was palpable. Rooms filled with music lovers; halls thronged with excited gear-heads. Now <I>that's</I> entertainment.
Renowned Canadian pianist Robert Silverman will be signing copies of his
<I>Stereophile</I> CDs at noon on Saturday May 22 at Home Entertainment
2004. Recorded in audiophile sound quality by <I>Stereophile</I> editor
John Atkinson, Robert's recordings include <A
HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicrecordings/315"><I>Concert</I></A>,
live performances of works by Bach, Chopin, Schumann, and Schubert; <A
HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicrecordings/131"><I>Sonata</I></A>,
featuring Frans Liszt's heroic B-minor Sonata; and the <A
HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicrecordings/298">complete Beethoven
Sonatas</A>.
Today marked the opening of Home Entertainment 2004 East, held at Manhattan's Hilton Hotel on 6th Avenue in Midtown. By long tradition, the first press conference in The Home Entertainment Show's busy press day has always been occupied by Sony and this year was no different. As we entered the Sony Suite, we were greeted by a wall display of over 2000 SACD titles—surely enough to be considered a down-payment on the critical mass that will be necessary for any high-rez format to survive. But any hopes that Sony would address SACD were quickly dashed in the press conference itself, which was primarily devoted to news of Sony's new broadband "location free" video systems, which allow consumers to carry 12.1" or 7" LCD video tablets anywhere they might wish to access their home-entertainment options. The data transfer is accomplished through the dual-band IEEE 802.11a/11g protocol. The 12" LF-X1 will retail for $1500 and the 7" widescreen LF-X5 will go for $1000.
The sales picture has improved for Tweeter Home Entertainment Group, but not the bottom line. The Canton, MA–based retailer reported a 4% increase in sales for the second quarter ended March 31, with comparable store results up 3%. The increase lifted Tweeter's total revenue to $189.3 million, but the company reported an operating loss of $4.6 million, almost twice the $2.5 million loss posted in the same period the previous year.
Sirius keeps climbing: If recent gains are any indication, Sirius Satellite Radio may reach its break-even number of subscribers. On May 11, the New York–based satellite radio service reported that it had achieved a subscribership of 400,000. The brand will get increased exposure this summer as Sirius receivers go on sale at Radio Shack and EchoStar "DISH Network" outlets. Sirius products from Audiovox, Clarion, Jenson, and Kenwood are already available at Wal-Mart stores and after-market car audio installers nationwide. Other manufacturers signing on with Sirius include Alpine, Blaupunkt, Crestron, Delphi, Eclipse, JVC, Niles, Sanyo, and US Electronics, all with products due this year. The 400,000-subscriber mark is an "important milestone for Sirius," according to CEO Joe Clayton, who said the company is on track to reach a target audience of one million subscribers by the end of 2004.