100 Things the BBC Didn't Know Last Year
My favorite is number 100.
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Why Are Movies So Bad?
This 25-year-old rant by Pauline Kael is even truer today.
Corn Starch and Water
All I ever do with it is thicken sauces. Onviously, I lack imagination.
What is your choice for worst new recording of 2005?
People constantly complain how bad music is these days, but what is the worst of the worst for 2005? What is your choice for worst new recording of 2005?
XLO Oops
In his January "Sam's Space" column, while writing about the system he used with Sutherland's Director line stage (p.32), Sam Tellig wrote "For the most part, I used now-discontinued XLO interconnects and speaker cables. XLO itself has been discontinued, alas. I do miss its founder, Roger Skoff."
Suing the RIAA
We've reported many times on the mass lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against individuals or institutions that it alleges are illegally participating in peer-to-peer file-sharing activities, so we felt it only fair to report on a lawsuit where the trade group is being sued. Actually, the RIAA's <I>attorneys</I> are being sued by James and Angela Nelson, who were themselves the target of <I>Motown v. Nelson</I>, which alleged that the couple had allowed an employee of Ms. Nelson's home-run daycare center to access P2P websites from their computer.
Happy New Year: Sony Settles Root Kit Suit
Sony BMG has agreed to settle a NY-based group action lawsuit triggered by the company's use of two different digital rights management (DRM) technologies. <A HREF="http://www.sunbelt-software.com/ihs/alex/sonysettleme23423423434nt.pdf"… here</A> to download a .pdf version of the 42-page <I>Motion and Memorandum of Law in Support of Plaintiff's Application for Preliminary Approval of Class Action Settlement</I>.
Infinity IRS Beta loudspeaker
In 1966, two avid audiophile/music lovers—a nuclear physicist named Arnold Nudell and an airline pilot named Cary Christie—labored over weekends and evenings for 18 months in Nudell's garage to put together the world's first hybrid electrostatic/dynamic loudspeaker system. It cost them $5000 for materials, launched a company (New Technology Enterprises), and helped contribute to the popular myth that all of the really <I>important</I> audiophile manufacturers got started in somebody's basement or garage (footnote 1). The system was marketed as the Servo-Statik I, for the princely sum of $1795. (At the time, the most expensive loudspeaker listed in <I>Stereo Review</I>'s "Stereo/Hi-Fi Directory" was JBL's "Metregon," at $1230.)
Vandersteen Audio 1B loudspeaker
Dear Diary:
Richard Vandersteen: Keep on Truckin'
Richard Vandersteen doesn't look like a typical loudspeaker designer. True, he wears glasses, but his presence suggests a longshoreman or somebody who'd be played by Gene Hackman. And sure enough, he tells you in a quasi-<I>Dukes of Hazzard</I> drawl that he's been a construction worker, plumber, truckdriver, and electrician. Electronics had always been a hobby, but Vandersteen formalized his understanding by working in electronics during his stint in the Air Force. Back in civilian life, Vandersteen entered into speaker manufacture, producing the "baffleless" range, at least regarding the midrange driver and tweeter, which bears his name. The speakers, particualrly the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/914">Model 2</A> and its <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/284">variants</A>, have become, in a decade, one of America's most respected brands, despite RV's low-profile marketing techniques. I met with Richard at the Las Vegas CES in January and asked him what had got him started in loudspeaker design.