LATEST ADDITIONS

Attention all you amateur speaker designers furiously creating the world's next revolutionary crossover or cabinet design in your garage: <A HREF="http://www.iserv.net/~meniscus">Meniscus Audio</A>, a manufacturer of loudspeakers that sells directly to consumers through mail-order marketing programs, has announced a loudspeaker design contest that offers the winner the opportunity to have his or her design developed for distribution as a kit. First- and second-place prizes will also be awarded.

Silicon Valley, Jan. 28---John Sunier, host of the nationally syndicated radio program <A HREF="http://www.btown.com/audio.html"><I>Audiophile Audition</I></A>, and I were here last night at Cogswell College for an Audio Engineering Society-hosted lecture and demonstration by <A HREF="http://www.medianix.com">MedianiX</A&gt;. The Mountain View-based semiconductor company has pioneered a "virtual multi-axis" ("VMAx") surround-sound technology using only one pair of closely spaced loudspeakers.

Conventional wisdom has always held that a pair of speakers can make the biggest difference in how a system sounds. But these days other components may be equally or more important, depending on the situation.

B<i>illboard Magazine</i> announced an agreement this week with Liquid Audio, a developer of secure music-delivery systems on the Internet, to make <i>Billboard</i>'s extensive database of album reviews and audio previews available through <A HREF=" http://www.billboard.com/">Billboard Online</A>. The audio portion will be provided in <A HREF=" http://www.liquidaudio.com/">Liquid Audio</A> format by the Music Previews Network, the company that provides Music Previews for Billboard Online.

The dirty little secret about consumer CD recorders has recently been getting out: In order to record on one of the new "inexpensive" consumer CD machines from such manufacturers as Pioneer or Philips, you have to purchase special "consumer audio" CD-Rs that can cost three to four times as much as the same CD-R formatted for use with a professional or computer-based CD recorder.

The <A HREF="http://www.pbs.org">Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)</A> and <A HREF="http://www.warnerbros.com/">Warner Bros. Records</A> announced January 8 that they have entered into a five-year record and television program funding partnership. The arrangement launches the PBS Records label, a new venture that will fuel the production of PBS performance programs and companion recordings. In addition, PBS Records will present music soundtracks from major PBS nonfiction series.

It gets tougher every year to cover a show like the CES. Dropping in on most of the high-end audio rooms at the Alexis Park isn't so bad---the hard part is getting to all the various splinter exhibits scattered around Las Vegas within the allotted four days.