<I>See update at end of article.</I> iTunes continues to grow and Napster has been reborn, but these last few months have been a bumpy ride for <A HREF="http://MP3.com">MP3.com</A>. The music site, known for its large online music library featuring unsigned independent artists, was purchased on December 14 by San Francisco-based <A HREF="http://www.CNET.com">CNET</A>.
A couple weeks back, we asked our readers for the oddest audio tweak they've come across. Reader Jeff Peterson thinks we should accentuate the positive and ask readers what they think is the greatest audio component that they've discovered, not the strangest.
<B><I>TOUS LES MATINS DU MONDE</I> (soundtrack)</B><BR>
Jordi Savall, Christophe Coin, bass viols; Les Concert des Nations, Jordi Savall, dir.<BR>
Valois/Auvidis V 4640 (CD only). Pierre Verany Studios, production & engineering. DDD. TT: 76:00
Long before the Swedes at Ikea did it, the singular Scotsman <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/1101ivor/">Ivor Tiefenbrun</A> began giving his products funny-sounding names. For some reason positively phobic about the letter <I>c</I>, he banned its use in any of those names. Someone once told me his real last name is Tiefencrun, but since it wouldn't <I>sound</I> any different with a <I>k</I>, he settled for a <I>b</I>. "I could have been Ivor Tiefendrun, or Tiefenfrun, or Tiefengrun, for that matter," he's quoted as having said once while krunching a krakker.
Before the advent of big-screen projection televisions, manhood was measured more conventionally: by the size of one's crate-sized, boat-anchor-heavy, brushed-aluminum-fronted power amplifiers. Those days are long gone.
Consumer electronics stores have long carried computer gear, everything from laptops and desktop systems to software and accessories. Computer stores, led by Gateway Country stores, have slowly been moving in the other direction. Now it looks as if convergence in the retail realm is about to take another great leap forward.
The music goes round and round: An investment group led by former Universal Music chief Edgar Bronfman, Jr. is in the lead to acquire Warner Music Group (WMG) and Warner/Chappell Music Publishing from corporate parent Time Warner, according to reports issued the third week of November. Bronfman's group—a consortium of banks and venture capital firms—has offered $2.8 billion for Time Warner's musical properties, possibly forcing prior suitor EMI Group PLC to drop out of the bidding. On Thursday, November 20, EMI chairman Eric Nicoll told reporters that Time Warner had informed his company of "a possible proposal from another party as an alternative to our own firm offer."
Chip Stern finds the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/1103tjoeb">AH! Njoe Tjoeb 4000 CD player</A> to be a bargain in its modest price range. CS writes: "Consider the notion of an exceptionally musical, single-chassis CD player with a tubed output stage that evinces the kind of soundstaging depth, liquidity, timbral accuracy, high-frequency detail, and top-to-bottom smoothness for which, barely five years ago, consumers might have eagerly coughed up $3000 and more."
Grabbing a few big gulps can sometimes fill you up quickly, but it can also lead to a little indigestion. This proved to be the case for <A HREF="http://www.dm-holdings.com">D&M Holdings</A>, which filed results for the first half of its fiscal year, ending September 30, 2003, and its financial forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2004 with the Tokyo Stock Exchange.