<B>DAVID CHESKY: <I>Area 31</I></B><BR>
<I>The Girl from Guatemala</I>, Flute Concerto, Violin Concerto<BR>
Wonjung Kim, soprano; Jeffrey Khaner, flute; Tom Chiu, violin; Anthony Aibel, Area 31<BR>
Chesky SACD288 (SACD/CD). 2004. David Chesky, David Eggar, prods.; Barry Wolfson, eng.; Rick Eckerle, second eng.; Nicholas Prout, mastering, editing. AAD? TT: 56:31<BR>
Performance <B>****½</B><BR>
Sonics <B>*****</B>
If you find yourself purchasing more new audio gear online each year, you are not alone. A recent study from the <A HREF="http://www.ce.org">Consumer Electronics Association</A> (CEA) reveals that online shopping for consumer electronics products is gaining in popularity. The CEA study finds that an average of 5% of all consumer electronics purchases are made online, with portable audio devices in particular selling more than 10% of product through online channels.
On July 4, a Brazilian website apparently posted some tools that allowed users of <A HREF="http://www.intervideo.com/jsp/Home.jsp">InterVideo's WinDVD</A> to pull copy-protected data off DVD-Audio discs and store it on the user's hard drive rather than simply routing it to a sound card. According to <A HREF="http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/6597.cfm">Afterdawn</A>, the tools didn't "do the decryption themselves, [but] instead patched WinDVD to output the decrypted stream to disk instead of the sound card."
<I>Classé's new player:</I> <A HREF="http://www.classeaudio.com">Classé's</A> new Delta line of components now includes a DVD player. The $6500 CDP-300 plays DVD-V, DVD-A, standard CD, DualDisc, Video-CD, S-VCD, and JPEG picture discs, in addition to those encoded with MP3, WMA, and AAC audio formats.
In last week's "Soapbox," reader Mark Gdovin discussed a great bargain CD player he had found. What's the best bargain component you've discovered?
No, folks, vinyl is not dead. And even though my colleague Mikey Fremer is beginning to sound like a broken record, the little guy is right: when it comes to the sound on offer, CD still doesn't come close. There are more turntables, phono cartridges, and tonearms on the market today than ever before. Moreover, with companies like Classic Records, Analogue Productions, and Mosaic offering a steady stream of ultra-high-quality reissues, there seems to be an increasing supply of quality vinyl at reasonable prices.
ProAc's designer Stuart Tyler sounded casual—almost bemused—when I spoke with him recently about the new 2.5, a floorstanding, two-way ported box in the middle price slot ($4500/pair) of his Response series. While answering my pressing queries about the crossover point, driver materials, cabinet construction, and other reviewer obsessions, his body language said, "Does any of that really matter with these speakers? You know what the real story is here."
"Wanted: Linn Axis turntable or similar, 555-1234."
On June 27, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Metro-Goldwin-Mayer (MGM), agreeing that peer-to-peer file-sharing services such as StreamCast Networks and Grokster could be held responsible (<I>read:</I> be sued) if they encouraged their users to infringe copyrights. This will return the "MGM <I>vs</I> Grokster" case to a lower court, where it will be determined whether or not the P2P companies encouraged their users to violate copyright laws.