Most speakers don't come in heavy wooden crates—they come in cardboard cartons, two per box, light enough to be tucked under one arm and carried out to the car. Not so in HighEndLand, where the smallest minimonitor can test a healthy man's strength. There are plenty of good reasons for this cult of robustness, foremost among them structural stability and the suppression of resonances.
<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/117">Paul Hales</A> has been a busy guy lately. In little over a year, he has designed and brought to production four new speakers in his Revelation series (footnote 1); his cost-no-object flagship, the Alexandra, which had been seen but not heard at a number of shows, was finally demonstrated at the 1999 CES; and he has introduced the new Transcendence series, which replaces the Concept series. (He's also produced a brand-new baby girl during this period, although I believe his wife made a significant contribution to <I>that</I> project.)
I have a soft spot in my heart (some say my head) for transmission-line designs. I remember being entranced by the authoritative but effortless bass of John Wright's IMF and TDL Monitors, and I have been inspired to experiment by building my own lines in various sizes. Then, as demonstrated by Bryston's Jim Tanner at the 1997 WCES and at HI-FI '97, PMC's IB-1S loudspeakers threw an enormously deep soundstage. (I have a soft spot for that as well.)
In a brief statement, <A HREF="http://www.internationalaudiogroup.com/">The International Audio Group</A> (IAG) announced on June 28 that it has purchased the <A HREF="http://www.mission.co.uk/">Mission</A> business from the Administrators of Symphonix. In a separate transaction, IAG reports that it has also purchased the Mission brandname from NXT.
<I>Note: this article has been updated at the bottom on July 5, 2005 with a statement from Nagra CEO Gérard Beuchat.</I>
<I>Good Morning America:</I> The war for listeners between XM Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio has seen MLB go to one broadcaster (XM) and Howard Stern to the other. On June 21, Sirius announced an agreement that will put the BBC's popular Radio 1 on a time-shifted broadcast schedule. The time-shift will enable American listeners to hear Radio 1's broadcast day "as it was intended—with Chris Moyles' <I>Breakfast Show</I> in the morning, Scott Mills' show in the afternoon, and kicking off the weekend with Pete Tong's Friday night <I>Essential Selection</I>," according to a press release.
The music industry and the file-sharing community have been waiting nervously for the impending Supreme Court decision in <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/041105supremes/index.html">MGM <I>vs</I> Grokster</A>, which is expected any day. At stake is not only peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, but the development of future forms of music distribution.
Last week we touched on the importance of reliability in an audio product. What have been your real-world experiences? How reliable have your audio purchases been?
The possible approaches to any technical problem range from trial and error to first-principles physics. Then there's the "purist" approach—the simplest, most direct way to meet the challenge. Often, the purist approach doesn't pan out because of such phrases as "we need 60 tons of molten gold" or "can we cool the entire building to absolute zero?" But in the world of high-end cables, the purist approach <I>is</I> viable, and is exactly where you find Jeffrey Smith.
Morten Lauridsen's magisterial work for chorus and orchestra, <I>Lux aeterna</I>, appears in a fresh new recording, in truly excellent sound, on England's Hyperion label. The vocal ensemble Polyphony is accompanied by the Britten Sinfonia; both are led by Stephen Layton. Better yet, in addition to the CD-only version, there is a separate SACD/CD hybrid release (Hyperion SACDA67449), meaning that it is backwardly-compatible with CD players. Furthermore, the SACD layer contains a surround-sound program in addition to the stereo one.