Michael Fremer wraps his ears around the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/449/">Westlake Audio Lc5.75F loudspeaker</A> in an effort to figure out "what's a pro audio company doing at CES?" Fremer discovers why a brand that, until recently, was rarely heard outside of recording studios is now selling 70% of its products to consumers.
Can you hear long passages of music in your mind? If so, your brain may be wired for sound like those of professional musicians.
In the race to get satellite radio to market, <A HREF="http://www.xmradio.com">XM Satellite Radio</A> was the first to <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11148/">hit the air</A> this past September. But competitor <A HREF="http://www.siriusradio.com">Sirius</A> says they were saving the best for last, and has now announced that its official launch date will be as early next year as February 14, with initial broadcasts reaching Denver, Phoenix, and Houston.
They don't turn over quite as fast as computer equipment, but mass-market audio component product cycles typically last about a year, until the next Consumer Electronics Show comes around. High-end audio products, however, enjoy much longer life spans—sometimes stretching to several years.
<I>What's a pro audio company doing at CES?</I>
"The long tradition of professional connoisseurship has resulted in the development of a bewildering universe of specialist terminology. In certain cases, it must be admitted, there was self-indulgent proliferation of words relating to some minute feature....In fact, no clear distinction can be made between one term and its closest neighbor in meaning."—from the Introduction to Kanzan Sato's <I>The Japanese Sword, A Comprehensive Guide</I>, translated and with an introduction by Joe Earle (New York: Kodansha America, Inc., 1983)
Reader Chuck Jones wonders to what extent financial means affect readers' audio equipment purchases.
Thanks to an agreement reached in October, musicians, rather than their record labels, will receive royalty payments for the use of recordings distributed over the Internet or broadcast over cable and satellite systems. Royalty collection agency <A HREF="http://www.soundexchange.com">SoundExchange</A> will distribute payments directly to performers, regardless of their contracts with the record companies, according to a statement issued the second week of November.