Does DRM drain your battery faster? James Kim says it might sap as much as 25%. Like several of the comments on this story,I have questions about his testing—such as why .WAV should require as much processing as MP3. I look forward to more exploration of this issue.
With official audio downloads and even CDs and high-rez audio now encumbered with DRM (digital rights management) technology, it would appear we are at the dawn of the restricted music format age. Is this a problem for you, or just another bump in the audio road?
After learning from John Sunier, publisher of Audiophile Audition, that Naxos, the largest classical label in the world, was expected to cease producing SACDs and DVD-As, I checked with their national publicist, Mark A. Berry. He in turn sought confirmation from Naxos' founder and chairman, Klaus Heymann.
<I>Krell restructures S&M:</I> Dean Roumanis, Krell's Chief Operating Officer, announced March 14 that the company had restructured its sales and marketing department to "enable [Krell] to continue to grow our business by maximizing the skills of our personnel."
The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) commissioned a new 144-page report of radio and consumer survey results, based on data collected between February 17 and 22 by Pollara, Inc. in 1229 telephone interviews with respondents above the age of 13. The purpose of the study was to collect data that the CRIA could submit to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunication Commission's (CTRC) <A HREF="http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Hearings/2006/n2006-1.htm">Commercial Radio Review</A>. (For those interested in reading all 144 pages, click <A HREF="http://support.crtc.gc.ca/applicant/docs.aspx?pn_ph_no=2006-1&call_id=2…; and download "Appendix A.")
<I>Stereophile</I>'s senior contributing editor, Michael Fremer, and the magazine's editor at large, Art Dudley, are both giving presentations this spring at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Michael appears on Tuesday, March 28, followed two weeks later, on April 11, by Art Dudley.
<I>Last week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF) <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/031306eff/">Fred von Lohmann</A> talked with us about how fair use created unexpected riches for Hollywood, created the iPod boom, and how dismantling it could prove disastrous for consumers. This week, we resume that conversation with a discussion about digital rights management (DRM) and why the computer industry is willing to support it, even though its consumers never asked for it.</I>
It was my hunt for new and interesting-looking turntables at the 2004 Consumer Electronics Show that introduced me to the loudspeakers from DeVore Fidelity. In the Glass Amplifier room I spied a Teres turntable with a Darth Vader-ish look and sat down to listen. From a pair of nondescript, two-way, floorstanding speakers so small they were almost lost in the room, came surprisingly present, full-bodied, and notably coherent music. Their sound so far exceeded my low expectations that I exclaimed, "What are those?! Whoever designed them sure knows what he's doing!"
I was just about to wrap up my British Invasion Tour of affordable speakers when I got a call from Fearless Leader John Atkinson.
The W-8 ($10,200) is the first of Simaudio's Moon series to incorporate the new Evolution cosmetics and new circuitry. I loved its predecessor, the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/167">Moon W-5</A>, which was one of the first power amplifiers I reviewed for <I>Stereophile</I> (March 1999, Vol.22 No.3). I also loved the "new and improved" W-5 when I wrote about in the May 2001 issue. In the September 2005 issue, Brian Damkroger praised Simaudio's monstrous <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/905sim">Moon Rock</A> monoblock, a contemporary of the Moon Evolution W-8 stereo amp.