LATEST ADDITIONS

"My original goal was simply to design a better turntable than the Linn because at that time in the UK, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/1101ivor">Ivor Tiefenbrun</A> was <I>the</I> man&mdash;he was the patron saint and all that. And all the hi-fi mags were full of Linns. He did for turntables, in a way, what Mark Levinson (the man) did for amplifiers."

It was a classic American tale: hearing that the head honcho of RadioShack was in town, the principals of Oregon-based high-end loudspeaker manufacturer Linaeum found out where he was staying and called him to see if RadioShack would be interested in marketing their speakers. They were rewarded for their daring by being given an introduction to the right RadioShack department head, and before you could say time-coherent, a deal was struck for RadioShack to manufacture a new line of three "audiophile" loudspeakers featuring a version of the unique Linaeum tweeter. The less-expensive Optimus Pro X77 and LX4 models use a baffle-mounted tweeter that radiates just to the front; the top-of-the-line Optimus Pro LX5 reviewed here mounts a bi-directional tweeter on the top of a diecast aluminum enclosure.

Back in the early 1970s, the BBC needed a physically unobtrusive, nearfield monitor loudspeaker for use in outside-broadcast trucks. Accordingly, they instructed their design department, which at that time featured such luminaries as Dudley Harwood (the "father" of the polypropylene cone, who went on to found Harbeth) and the late Spencer Hughes (the "father" of the Bextrene cone, who went on to found Spendor), to produce such a model. Thus, not only was what was then probably the finest collection of British speaker-design talent involved in its development, there were no commercial constraints placed on the design. The only limitations were intended to be those arising from the necessarily small enclosure and the absence of the need for a wide dynamic range under close monitoring conditions.

Among the terrible news coming out of the Gulf states these past few days, we heard the sad news that Gary Warzin, one of the co-founders, with Tony Gregory, of high-end distribution company Audiophile Systems, had died on Saturday August 27 at just 56. Audiophile Systems had grown to prominence in the 1970s and '80s marketing Linn components in the US, and after Linn had set up their own distribution, had worked hard to establish the Arcam and dCS brands in the US. We reproduce below the email we received from Audiophile Systems, telling us of the news, but I'd like to offer my own memory of someone whose abilities as a serious expert on marketing&mdash;he was a Disney Fellow&mdash;were matched by his penchant for practical jokes:

Norway's one-stop hacking expert, Jon Lech Johansen, has now reverse-engineered the encryption coding in Windows Media Player that prevents .NSC files from being accessed by users of other platforms.<I>Geek-to-nerd translation:</I> An .NSC file carries information about a media stream, including the port name and file address of the stream server. When Media Player opens the file, it decodes this information and connects to the stream server the code specifies. Johansen doesn't believe there's a rational reason to encrypt this information since, upon opening the stream, the information is usually displayed by the network utility running the stream anyway. Johansen reportedly said that his hack will make WMP streams available to users of open source streaming media players, such as VideoLAN Client (VLC).

It's been a while since the <I>Stereophile</I> website was freshened up. Probably too long. So this time we decided to start from scratch and combine the stack of reader suggestions we've received with the thousands of articles and other features already online to create something that we hope scratches your audiophile itch better than ever.

<I>Imerge merged:</I> Linear, LLC (Carlsbad, CA, USA) has acquired Imerge, Ltd. (Cambridge, UK), one of Europe's top providers of Internet-connected, hard disk-based audio products and media appliances. (Imerge's relational XiVA-Link database software is used in such products as the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/497">Linn Kivor</A> media server.) Linear is best known for its engineered radio-frequency (RF) products and as a major supplier of wireless residential security systems, intercoms, garage door operators, gate operators, short- and long-range radio remote controls, and medical/emergency reporting systems. In recent years the company, through acquisition, has expanded into consumer electronics, home entertainment products, and structured wiring systems for the builder market. Imerge will join Linear's Home Technology Group.