There have been reports that some CD, and some combination CD/DVD/etc. machines, have trouble finding the CD layer on a hybrid SACD disc. If you've bought a hybrid SACD/CD disc, has it played on everything you own that can play a CD?
As the saying goes, there are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics. Statistics can be used to help understand what goes on in the world, but, as any marketing exec or PR company knows, they can also be manipulated to tell a particular story.
On Wednesday, September 11, the <A HREF="http://www.nab.org">National Association of Broadcasters</A> (NAB) filed a brief with the U.S. Copyright Office seeking relief from the implementation of a webcasting royalty schedule announced this summer by the Librarian of Congress, James Billington. In June, Billington determined that commercial stations streaming their musical programming on the Internet should pay a rate of .07 cents per song per 1000 listeners, a rate less than half that suggested by the music industry–backed Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel.
Chip manufacturer <A HREF="http://www.cirrus.com">Cirrus Logic</A> announced last week that it has introduced two audio, high-performance, digital-to-analog converters (DACs) that it claims will enable manufacturers to bring more DVD-Audio players to the mainstream consumer market.
In his recent review of the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/663/">Thiel CS1.6 loudspeaker</A>, John Atkinson pointed out that while expensive speakers "do indeed provide great sound for the tens of thousands of dollars they demand from their owners, they are out of reach of the majority of audiophiles." Ever the populist, JA tackles this reasonably priced Thiel to see how it measures up to the big boys.
DVD-Audio may have gotten a boost on the production end with the impending release of DVD-Audio Creator LE, an authoring system developed and marketed by <A HREF="http://www.sonic.com">Sonic Solutions</A>. Available October 15, the authoring system will sell for $5999, a price that could enable many small recording studios and mastering houses to begin working with the format. "DVD-Audio Creator LE puts powerful tools in the hands of professional mastering studios at a very low cost," said Dietrick Hardwick, DVD-Audio product manager at Sonic Solutions. "This enables facilities to significantly expand their service offerings by providing their clients DVD-Audio title creation at an affordable price."
Home theater may be the electronic industry's golden goose, but, contrary to nasty rumors, standalone audio is sailing along proudly, as demonstrated by several recently released products.
I had mixed feelings about reviewing the $189/pair Paradigm Atom loudspeaker. Although in the past I've been favorably impressed with Paradigm's speakers—the $600/pair <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/628/">Reference Studio/20</A> remains one of my favorite affordables—Budget Bob tends to get a bit nervous when a speaker's price drops below $250/pair. In my experience, even when the most talented speaker designers attempt to make a speaker to sell at such a low price, the result is often a very small cabinet with limited bass extension and inferior high-level dynamics.
<B>BEETHOVEN & MENDELSSOHN: <I>Violin Concertos</I></B><BR> Joshua Bell, violin; Roger Norrington, Camerata Salzburg<BR> Sony Classical SK 89505 (CD). 2002. Andrew Keener, prod.; Arne Akselberg, eng. DDD. TT: 69:58<BR> Performance <B>*****</B><BR> Sonics <B>*****</B>
In the past year, <I>Stereophile</I> has reviewed a number of cost-no-object flagship loudspeakers. <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/600/">B&W's Signature 800</A>, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/390/">MartinLogan's Prodigy</A>, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/601/">Burmester's B-99</A>, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/556/">Snell's XA Reference Tower</A>, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/382/">Krell's LAT-1</A>, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/555/">Linn's Komri</A>, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/501/">Dynaudio's Evidence Temptation</A>, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/391/">Sony's ES SS-M9ED</A>, and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/644/">Rockport's Antares</A> have all passed through the review mill. Manufacturers like to submit their flagships for review for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the pride they take in showing what their engineers can do when given a blank check. However, while all these models do indeed provide great (if different) sound for the tens of thousands of dollars they demand from their owners, they are out of reach of the majority of audiophiles. It is important, therefore, for reviewers to spend time with real-world designs; when I heard the $1990/pair CS1.6 from Kentucky's Thiel at the 2002 CES last January, I requested a pair for review.