<B>GINGER BAKER & THE DJQ2O: <I>Coward of the County</I></B><BR> Ginger Baker, drums; Ron Miles, trumpet; James Carter, baritone sax, bass clarinet; Fred Hess, tenor sax; Eric Gunnison, piano; Shamie Royston, organ; Todd Ayers, guitar; Glenn Taylor, pedal-steel guitar; Artie Moore, bass<BR>Atlantic 83168-2 (CD). 1999. Ginger Baker, Ron Miles, prods.; Danny Kopelson, eng. DDD. TT: 60:26<BR> Performance <B>****?</B><BR> Sonics <B>****</B>
Reader Patrick Tracy claims that he's addicted to buying music: "As in the studies of lab mice and cocaine, I will repeatedly choose music over most any other pursuit. Like a longtime drug addict, I now need larger and larger doses of new music to achieve the rush that a single recording might give a normal person."<P>How about you?
Believe it or not, there are reportedly several "audiophiles" out there who still refuse to accept that an extremely expensive amplifier can justify its price. "For them, the very idea of a $20,000 pair of monoblocks must seem absolutely ridiculous," writes Wes Phillips. "All I can say is that they should steer clear of the Mark Levinson No.33H, or else risk having their tidy little hypotheses shattered into tiny little pieces." For the complete review, take a look at the latest equipment report to hit the Archives: <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/115/">Mark Levinson No.33H monoblock power amplifier</A>.
It wasn't too long ago that rock band Pearl Jam set their lawyers after the dozens of independent websites pre-releasing pirated versions of the band's album <I>Yield</I>, hoping to curtail its availability on the Internet. How times change. On June 4, any consumer with access to the Internet and a <A HREF="http://www.real.com">RealNetworks</A> G2 player will have the opportunity to visit the world's "ultimate listening posts" when the Red Hot Chili Peppers' new album, <I>Californication</I>, and Def Leppard's <I>Euphoria</I>, will be available in their entireties for streaming on the Web---four days prior to their official June 8 release.
Streaming multiple channels of music has proven a big hit with satellite customers, so it seems natural that <A HREF="http://www.dmxmusic.com">DMX</A>---a subsidiary of TCI Music (soon to be renamed Liberty Digital), and the company responsible for bringing audio to 2.6 million dish owners---would move to the Internet. Last week, DMX announced a multi-year, multi-phase global distribution agreement under which the DMX music service will be transmitted on <A HREF="http://www.lycos.com">Lycos</A>' network of websites.
S<I>tereophile</I> editor John Atkinson---arguably the high-end audio publishing industry's single most important figure, and certainly its intellectual nexus---has seen it all in his 23 years in the high-end audio industry. At HI-FI '99 in Chicago, <A HREF="http://www.audiocafe.com/">Audiocafe.com</A>'s Andrew Keen was able to pull JA away from his busy schedule for an in-depth interview about his views on the industry's current state of affairs---and on what's just over the horizon.
Providing another boost to the nascent DVD-Audio market, <A HREF="http://www.zoran.com">Zoran Corporation</A>, a provider of integrated circuits (ICs) and software for digital video and audio applications, announced last week the availability of a new DVD decoder IC chip, the <A HREF="http://www.vaddis.com">Vaddis IV</A>. Zoran says the chip is optimized for fourth-generation DVD players and will include integrated DVD-Audio decoding. According to the company, the new Vaddis IV decoder enables the design of flexible and advanced---yet affordable---new DVD players.
Radio broadcasts are still among the most useful resources for finding new music. They are also among the most frustrating. It's a rare occurrence anymore for announcers to tell you the name of a song and who performed it. Often, if you really want to know, you have to call the station and ask. If you're really lucky, someone might be willing to answer your question.
In <I>Stereophile</I>'s "Recommended Components," most full-range Class A speakers—and even some in Class B—are behemoths. Some are tall, some are wide, some are deep, and some are just plain big. Most of us would find such no-compromise devices physically imposing and visually distracting in our listening rooms. Putting aside the infamous "Spousal Acceptance Factor," how can you ignore such speakers' presence and concentrate on the music?
Sony and Philips claim that a big advantage to SACD is that the high-resolution SACD discs can be back-compatible with regular CD players. DVD-Audio proponents say that DVD-Audio discs can be made back-compatible with CD players as well if consumers want it. Do you want it?