Awards Are Here
The show has just opened its doors and <I>Stereophile</I>'s Stephen Mejias holds the new Product of the Year awards to be handed out all day long.
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Are you ready for an audiophile music server?
Now that hi-rez files without DRM are starting to become available for download from several labels, are you ready for an audiophile music server?
Sony BMG Drops DRM
On January 4, <I>BusinessWeek.com</I> <A HREF="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2008/tc2008013_398775…; that Sony BMG Music Entertainment was dropping digital rights management (DRM) from "at least part of its collection." Sony BMG thus becomes the last of the big four music labels to do so—following <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/news/123107warner/">Warner Music Group's example</A> by less than a week. EMI and Universal Music Group began the stampede earlier in the year, pioneering DRM-free downloads with <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/100107amazon/">Amazon.com</A>, among other partners.
Reference Recordings Aims At Your Hard Drive
Reference Recordings, the Bay Area-based audiophile label founded by John T. "Tam" Henderson in 1976, has adopted a unique approach to computer and music server playback. Later this month, the company will begin to market what they call "HRx" discs. Incompatible with conventional optical disc players, these are data discs containing WAV files intended for playback on computer-based music servers. Each HRx is a digit-for-digit copy of an original Reference Recordings 24-bit/176.4kHz digital master. The format is slated for audition during this week's CES. It can be heard in the TAD, FIM, and Magico rooms at the Venetian, as well as in On a Higher Note's Vivid/Luxman suite at the Mirage. Actual HRx discs will be available soon thereafter.
Wadia Announces Launch of iPod Dock with S/PDIF Output
Wadia Digital, Inc. announced that it will debut the $349 iTransport iPod dock in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) January 7, 2008. Certified by Apple as "Made for iPod®," the iTransport bypasses the iPod's internal D/A conversion to output an S/PDIF signal, "providing CD-quality resolution from full-resolution from file formats such as .WAV and [Apple Lossless]."
Stereo & the Soundstage
The accuracy of a hi-fi system's "soundstage" reproduction seems to be of paramount importance these days, just as a component must now have "transparency" to possess hi-fi righteousness. If the system in which that component is used doesn't give good soundstage, then the system's owner has definitely fallen by the wayside. But what defines a good soundstage? Stereo imaging must have something to do with it, I hear you all cry. (I would have said stereo <I>imagery</I> until Larry Archibald pointed out that imagery has far less to do with hi-fi than with good writing, something I'm sure we agree has no place in a hi-fi magazine.) OK, what defines good stereo imaging?
Nelson Pass: Simple Sounds Better
As one of the founders of Threshold Corporation, its present chairman, and its longtime technical head, Nelson Pass has had a hand in the design and implementation of the products to come out of that company since its inception. His <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/16threshold">SA-1</A> power amplifier and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpreamps/987fet10">FET 10</A> preamplifier have been long-term favorites of <I>Stereophile</I> founder J. Gordon Holt and I reviewed the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/1290thresh">Threshold SA-12/e</A> power amplifier a year ago (Vol.13 No.12). I cornered him on a visit to Santa Fe...
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High Ground
Sometimes, Huckleberry simply <I>has</I> to take the high ground and brood. Well, it looks like brooding, but he's not deep, that cat. He's probably thinking <I>How did I get here? How do I get down? What was that middle thing again?</I>
Helpful Bagheera
Our least trusting cat has inexplicably determined that her favorite perch in the house is <I>on</I> the heavily trafficked threshold between the kitchen and living room. She's training us to step lightly—and as far to the other side as possible.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
On Christmas day, my friend, the <I>Nuyorican</I> goddess Liz Ramirez-Weaver saw me looking at Junot Diaz's <I>The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao</I>. "It's good," she said. "You should borrow it."
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