As expected, the Recording Industry Association of America held a press conference last week to announce the formation of the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) which hopes to develop internet downloading technologies for music. The move comes after a rough year for the music business who has seen thousands of unauthorized websites offer copyrighted material for free using the MP3 audio format.
W<I>e recently received the following from Christos Skaloumbakas, President of the Audiophile Club of Athens, Greece. The ACA website is easy to navigate, with pictures and descriptions of members' systems---including listening rooms' floor construction and furnishings. Except for a few letters and opinion pieces, text is in clearly written English. The club is completely noncommercial, has no position regarding any of the usual audiophile controversies, and encourages open discussion. A love of music and a desire to share it are the only requirements for membership.---BW</I>
The holiday retailing picture looks promising, according to several recent reports. Both the <A HREF="http://www.cemacity.org/">Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association</A> and the <A HREF="http://www.riaa.com/">Recording Industry Association of America</A> were predicting up seasons after mid-year numbers came in higher than expected. Overall, retail sales were up 0.6% in November, reported the <A HREF="http://www.wsj.com/"><I>Wall Street Journal</I></A> on Monday, December 14.
A continuation of last week's question. Equipment reviews are <I>Stereophile</I>'s bread and butter. Do they strike a good balance between technical details and subjective impressions? Are the measurements, charts, and graphs useful to you?
<I>This series of articles was initially written (in slightly different form), as a paper presented at the 103rd Audio Engineering Society Convention, New York, September 1997. The preprint, "Loudspeakers: What Measurements Can Tell Us—And What They Can't Tell Us!," AES Preprint 4608, is available from the AES, 60 East 42nd Street, Room 2520, New York, NY 10165-0075. The </I>AES internet site, <A HREF="http://www.aes.org">www.aes.org</A> <I>, offers a secure transaction page for credit-card orders.</I>
T<I>he recent success of online retailers---especially when launching initial public offerings---has been phenomenal. In the past two years, Internet shopping has taken off in a big way, and shows no indication of slowing down. Technology trendwatcher Forrester Research <A HREF="http://www.forrester.com/Press/Releases/Standard/0,1184,114,00.html">pr…; that worldwide Internet commerce will hit the $3.2 trillion mark within four years, accounting for 5% of all commerce.
For those of you who need yet another Jimi fix, Experience Hendrix/MCA will release a 2-CD collection of music from Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys concerts at New York City's Fillmore East, which took place on December 31, 1969 and January 1, 1970. Drawn from the guitarist's four legendary performances, the new package will contain 16 tracks, 13 of which have never before been released in any form, with two additional tracks making their CD debut. <I>Jimi Hendrix: Live at the Fillmore East</I> will be released on CD and 180gm vinyl (three LPs) on February 9.
When going up against the consumer electronics industry, the <A HREF="http://208.240.92.66/">Recording Industry Association of America</A> has no problem keeping the upstarts in their place. In fact, with recent battles over DAT and CD-R, they appear able to kill or mortally wound entire formats at will. But fighting within the computer universe is a whole new story, as recently proved by the RIAA's stumble with Diamond Multimedia and their portable MP3 device (<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10324/">see related stories</A>).
Audiophiles have more than just piles of equipment and music to wrestle with in their quest for audio ecstasy. The listening room often colors a system's performance as much as any component in the chain. Tom Norton decided it was time to examine the subject, writing, "although the perfect room does not exist, there are things that can be done to make the most of even an admittedly difficult situation." See his report in "<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//reference/58/">Enough Room?</A>"
E<I>ditor's Note: This item is an excerpt from an e-mail received from Russia late last week. It's noteworthy that the US Congress has spent hundreds of days and more than $50 million investigating the President's adolescent shenanigans, while elsewhere in the world serious trouble is afoot. Leonid Korostyshevski is a computer consultant and audiophile in the university town of Saratov, on the Volga river 600 miles east of Moscow. His <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10131/">previous dispatch</A> appeared here in March.----BW</I>