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Spitzer Looks at Warner—Again!
Did the Big Four collude in setting 99¢:/song download pricing?
Rings Around Uranus
Not a Beavis and Butthead joke.
What is your choice for best new recording of 2005?
Of course there were some great reissues this past year, but what <I>new</I> release would you say was the most significant in 2005? What is your choice for best new recording of 2005?
Music Lovers Audio Opens San Francisco Store
Don't bother to tell <A HREF="http://www.musicloversaudio.com">Music Lovers Audio</A> that audio sales have slowed. At a time when many dealers have abandoned two-channel audio altogether or chosen between de-emphasizing music and calling it quits, this Bay Area audio retailer has opened a second store a mere 30 miles from the original North Berkeley location, across the Bay in San Francisco.
Changes at dCS
English digital audio company dCS has announced a major change in its management and ownership structure. David Steven, marketing manager for the last four years, has purchased the majority shareholding in the company. Derek Fuller, who was the business manager, has left the company, while Mike Story, dCS's founder, will continue as chief digital designer. A dCS press release says that the change should result in "products and programs that have a much more customer-centric focus."
Merry Christmas!
Dave Barry posted this one today and it's just too fabulous not to share. Enjoy—and then spend the rest of the day listening to music with your families.
VTL S-400 Reference power amplifier
When I <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/tubepoweramps/152">reviewed</A> VTL's MB-750 monoblock amplifier in the December 1997 <I>Stereophile</I> (Vol.20 No.12), it was a transitional time for the company. <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/153">Luke Manley</A> had recently taken it over, and he and his wife and partner, Bea Lam, were aggressively retooling. They introduced new business systems, including rigorous inventory and quality control; rebuilt VTL's dealer network around top-rank dealers; and systematically upgraded the products themselves to improve their consistency, reliability, manufacturability, and performance. VTL's goal, Luke explained to me at the time, was to build amplifiers that competed with the very best, and to "make the tubes invisible to the customer."
EAR 912 preamplifier
My opinions keep changing—more evidence of life before death, I suppose—including my thoughts on audio-system hierarchies. I used to think that preamps were among the most sonically influential components, certainly more so than power amplifiers. I'm not so sure anymore (footnote 1).
Whest PhonoStage.20 phono preamplifier
Like the $29,000 <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/phonopreamps/621">Boulder 2008</A> phono preamplifier, the new Whest PhonoStage.20 with its MsU.20 power supply costs as much as a car. Fortunately for you, that car happens to be my first new Saab, which cost exactly $2737 back in 1972. The solid-state Whest costs $2595, so it's a few hundred dollars cheaper. But at only a tenth the cost, it comes closer to the Boulder 2008's performance than it has any right to. That it's good enough to be mentioned in the same paragraph should tell you something about how good I think it is. Nor did it come to me hyped by the manufacturer—it took me by surprise from the minute I first heard it. I began my listening right away, before reading anything about the circuit design.