In the June issue of <I>Stereophile</I>, John Atkinson writes about the disturbing practice of mastering music releases with unmusical compression and limiting. Is this a big deal for you?
Ah, Brazil...land of coffee, the samba, Pelé, Rio-by-the-sea-o, and tube amplifiers. All right, so perhaps the amplifier connection isn't <I>quite</I> as well-established. But one Brazilian amplifier designer, Eduardo de Lima, has published articles in <I>Glass Audio</I> magazine that are viewed by many as groundbreaking, and his evolving products have been seen at various specialist tube equipment shows. De Lima—president, founder, product designer, and principal owner of Audiopax Sistemas Eletroacusticos—is an electrical engineer who started out designing equipment for a telecommunications company, but since 1995 he's devoted his talents to designing a wide range of audio products, including speakers as well as preamps and power amps.
In this week's Soapbox, reader Mike Johnston partly blames radio consolidation for music business woes. As radio ownership has changed over the last five years, have you found yourself listening to it more or less?
Retail sales of recorded music in the United Kingdom sagged by an unprecedented 13% in the first three months of 2003, according to figures released May 14 by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). British music fans spent £216 million ($351 million) in the first quarter of this year, compared to £249 million ($404.6 million) in the same period a year ago. In unit sales, albums in the UK declined only 4.8% to 44 million, but prices dropped 9.4%. UK album sales totaled £200 million ($324.9 million); singles were off 42%, accounting for only £16.2 million ($26.3 million).
Audiophiles will get a rare opportunity to discover the similarities and differences between SACD reproduction and the real thing at this year's <A HREF="http://www.homeentertainment-expo.com">Home Entertainment 2003</A> show in San Francisco. <A HREF="http://www.diversityrecords.net">Diversity Records, Ltd.</A> has announced it will record two performances by its artists at HE2003 on June 7 (1–4:30pm).
Satellite radio services appear to be gaining sufficient market momentum to get them over the startup hump.
Several readers have been asking "What's with all of the Musical Fidelity reviews in <I>Stereophile</I>?" Michael Fremer fearlessly wires the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//digitalsourcereviews/838/">Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista SACD player</A> into his system, noting, "Overachievers tend to rankle people after a while."
Overachievers tend to rankle people after a while. Musical Fidelity, a relatively small British company run by Antony Michaelson, has issued a stream of high-performance, high-value electronic products over the past few years, along with a limited-edition line of pricier designs based on the military-spec nuvistor vacuum tube. With few exceptions, Musical Fidelity products have garnered outstanding reviews worldwide, with consumer acceptance to match. Michaelson is also an accomplished clarinetist, recording and issuing classical-music CDs in his "spare" time.
<I>Poetry, painting, and sculpture must lie, but they should lie with grandeur, charm, and splendor.</I>—Napoléon I