Multichannel audio has its share of fans and detractors. Often, a well-executed example of a new technology can be the most effective tool to attract new fans. Have you heard an impressive multichannel recording? If so, what is it?
<B>DAVE HOLLAND BIG BAND: <I>Overtime</I></B>
Five years after the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/164">launch</A> of the audiophile's dream medium, Super Audio CD, the format remains stalled in the market.
The spirit moved upon the earth.<BR>The rocks cra'ked asunder,<BR>Darkness smote the light,<BR>Seas boiled away with a thought,<BR>And all life was extinguished.
Researchers at the International Center for Hearing and Speech Research (ICHSR) have found that age-related hearing loss may be all (or at least mostly) in your head rather than a problem with your ears.
As rules of thumb go, this one is pretty infallible: By the time we've heard about it, a trend's hippest participants will think it's on the decline. That means that <I>mashups</I>, or the manipulation of the musical genetic material of several different songs to create a new song, may be on their way out, because <I>we've</I> become infatuated with them.
Depending on who you talk to, so far in the US, DualDisc has either been a success (according to the record labels) or a stumble (according to the press and manufacturers). Now Europe gets a chance to see what the fuss is all about.
Last week we asked about the oldest recording you listen to, this week, reader Saul Ziegler would like to know what is the most recent recording you have acquired?
Just what <I>is</I> the absolute sound, and how do you get there from here? What the heck are we looking for as we endure the mirth of others while purposefully setting up our high-end systems? Is it, indeed, the sanctified sound of acoustic instruments in real space? Can we ever really achieve that? Or is it the accurate realization of the signal on the master tape? Or—as was recently suggested at the New York Noise single-ended lovefest, covered in this issue's "Industry Update"—are some of us looking for the emotion and the artist's intent?