This week, we turn to audio equipment. What percentage of your audio equipment purchases in the last 12 months has been at a brick-and-mortar retailer in your area?
It's starting to seem like Columbia Records had a difficult time with that whole "live recording" as a paradigm for authenticity thing. First, we discovered that Duke Ellington's <I>Live at Newport</I> was faked, now Johnny Cash's <I>Live at Folsom Prison</I> turns out to be less than authentic, too. Is nothing sacred?
Hans Berthe gave three lectures on quantum theory to a retirement village near Cornell. Cornell is streaming them on the web for those of us who need an expert interpretation—and who doesn't? As Richard Feynman so famously said, "If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics."
Forget "Woe is me," the real question is "what is me?"
I love this site! Kids describe and draw scientists beore and after a trip to Fermilab.
Kinky Friedman is running for governor of Texas. He admits that musicians don't tend to get much done in the morning, but he promises to work late.
One of the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is that the US Copyright Office hold hearings every three years to ensure that the DMCA is operating properly. For one month prior to those hearings any interested party can submit comments calling for exceptions or revisions. The latest comment period began on January 4, 2006 and has resulted in some fascinating comments.
If the rumors are true, Amazon, the giant Internet retailer of books, recordings, videos, and just about everything else, is about to embark upon a music subscription service—complete with Amazon-branded music players at a deep discount, or perhaps even for free.
The penultimate stop on Bob Reina's British Invasion Tour of Affordable Loudspeakers (footnote 1) brings us to the doors of KEF. Although KEF is a large and well-established British firm, I've noticed that their product lines have not been as visible in the US as those of, say, B&W, Wharfedale, or Mission. In fact, the last time I heard a KEF speaker, it was the company's then-flagship design, at a Consumer Electronics Show nearly 20 years ago! Before that, when I lived in London, KEFs were ubiquitous, down to the older, entry-level designs tacked to the walls of the ethnic restaurants I frequented. My strongest KEF memory is a cumulative one: Every KEF speaker I've ever heard, regardless of price, venue, or setup, has always produced good, convincing sound.
About once a week, I hear about some new audio accessory heralded by breathless claims of stunning performance gains that "you've got to hear for yourself." Most of these I ignore, and of those I do consider, nearly all wither when subjected to logical engineering analysis. Every so often, however, one of these wonder widgets finds its way into my system.