The streak of acquisitions for <A HREF="http://www.dm-holdings.com">D&M Holdings</A> continues. Last month saw the company <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11595/">pick up</A> its third major consumer electronics brand when McIntosh Laboratory was brought into the fold with Denon and Marantz. Last week, D&M announced that it was successful in a bid to acquire certain assets comprising the digital video recorder and MP3 business units of troubled SONICblue.
April brought several important executive changes to the audio industry.
Last week found Recoton <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11618/">struggling</A> to keep its head above water. This week Gemini Industries tossed the beleaguered company a rope, announcing that it had reached an agreement to acquire Recoton's consumer electronics accessories business. In support of this transaction and Gemini's growth plan, the company raised new funding from Boston-based Parthenon Capital.
The best tonearm I ever heard was a second-generation Mission Mechanic, <I>ca</I> 1986. It was mounted on a Roksan Xerxes turntable, and I spent several happy hours listening to records on that combination (with a low-compliance EMT cartridge) in two very different systems: one with solid-state amplification from DNM and Roksan's own dynamic Darius loudspeakers, and the other—my home system of the time—using tube amplification from Conrad-Johnson and a borrowed pair of Stax electrostatic speakers.
I was trading e-mails with Roger Sanders, manufacturer of the Eros Mk.III electrostatic (ESL) loudspeakers, when it occurred to me to ask him about his name. I was struck that he had the same last name as Gayle Sanders, president of another American electrostatic speaker company, MartinLogan. Were they related? "No," replied Roger Sanders, "it's simply a coincidence that we have similar names. I've never even met him.
We all know that audio is not a beauty contest, but still, looks do count. Leaving sound quality aside for a moment, what would you suggest as the most stunning <I>looking</I> piece of audio gear you've ever seen?
On April 8, <A HREF="http://www.rcot.com">Recoton Corporation</A> voluntarily revealed that it and all of its US-based subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.
A month after news of Apple Computer's start-up subscription music service, reports began circulating that the company was negotiating to buy Universal Music Group, the dominant player in the global music market. The rumored buyout, first reported April 10, was variously quoted at $5–6 billion. The discussions between Apple and UMG may have been blown out of proportion; by April 12 the <I>New York Times</I> was suggesting that Apple might invest in UMG, but was in no position to make an outright acquisition.
If a recent announcement by the nation's largest radio broadcaster is any indication of a trend, independent music promoters may be on their way to extinction.
<I>Stereophile</I> was saddened to learn of the death of Herb Papier earlier this month. He was 86. A musician—he was an amateur trumpeter—music lover, and inventor, Papier was best known in the audiophile community as the designer and original manufacturer of the Wheaton Tri-Planar tonearm.