Back in April 2001, Jonathan Scull got his hands on the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/401sony">Sony SCD-C333ES SACD/CD player</A>—a carousel model no less—and filed his report. "So I loaded up five discs for the evening—a process quite different from choosing and playing one disc at a time—and imagined the angle on the bumper shot I'd have to line up for <I>this</I> review!"
The entertainment industry is going the last mile in its war against file sharing. On Friday, October 8, the Motion Picture Association of America (<A HREF="http://www.mpaa.org">MPAA</A>), the Recording Industry Association of America (<A HREF="http://www.riaa.com">RIAA</A>), and the National Music Publishers Association (<A HREF="http://www.nmpa.org">NMPA</A>) appealed to the US Supreme Court to overturn a lower court's ruling earlier this year that peer-to-peer (P2P) file-trading networks can't be held liable for copyright infringement.
Tyll Hertsens is on a mission. He strives to transform the ugly duckling bleat of portable audio into music that sings to an audiophile's heart.
Anyone who has experimented with wireless local area networks for audio—feeding rear/side speakers in a multichannel system, for example—can attest that the technology is far from ready for prime time. Prone to noise, interference, and dropouts, wireless audio systems require a tremendous amount of refinement before they'll meet audiophile standards.
Forget about the music for a second, and let's concentrate on the art of reproduction. What is the best <I>sounding</I> disc you've heard so far this year?
<I>Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark.—</I>Henri-Frédéric Amiel
The internal battle between the head and the heart, between the analytical and romantic sides of our nature, is a difficult one. I'm an engineer, so it seems as if my cold, calculating side should have the upper hand. This is true in a lot of cases; most of my actions and decisions are based on straightforward, logical analyses. However, things like a house full of castaway dogs, or a garage full of quixotic British cars and Italian motorcycles, suggest that my heart holds sway reasonably—perhaps distressingly—often.
To compartmentalize or not to compartmentalize, that is the question. Does one review an expensive CD player at the dawn of the 24-bit/96kHz digital age by pulling a "Clinton," standing defiantly before a jury of audio peers to deliver a speech on the state of the CD art, boxing in, roping off, and all but ignoring the new, supposedly unimpeachable medium?
John Atkinson flapped his bushy eyebrows at me and smiled slyly. "Hey, J-10, why don't <I>you</I> do the Sony SCD-C333ES SACD carousel player for April?" Usually, when JA gets that look on his face, I seek shelter. The phone bripped suddenly in my office, but I knew it was too late. "Oooo-<I>kay</I>..." I smiled back, thinking of <I>Stereophile</I>'s recent covers and the hubbub, bub, thick as it comes, that they'd produced. (See "Letters" in the February and March issues.)
Satellite radio goes high-end: Beginning early next year, <A HREF="http://www.krellonline.com/">Krell Industries</A> will enter the booming market for satellite radio receivers with an XM Radio tuner. The $4000 unit will reportedly also receive traditional AM and FM broadcasts; an optional module will let it stream Internet audio via 802.11g wireless connection to a broadband modem, according to the September 27 edition of <I>This Week in Consumer Electronics</I> (<A HREF="http://www.twice.com">TWICE</A>). The tuner will join Krell's line of custom installation products. In a similar but less expensive vein will be new Sirius tuners from <A HREF="http://www.russound.com/">Russound</A>. At $699 and $999, the two new models will also include AM/FM tuners.