The year was 1948. As a six-year-old, I haunted record stores with my Uncle Stan. A quiet bank teller from Manchester, England, childless himself and quite overpowered by my Aunt Emily, Uncle Stan shared with me his love of music and movies.
<B>LOS LOBOS: <I>El Cancionero Mas Y Mas</I></B><BR> Warner Archives/Rhino RS 76670-2 (4 CDs). 2000. Los Lobos, Luis Torres, T Bone Burnett, Ry Cooder, Mitchell Froom, Hal Willner, others, prods.; Larry Hirsch, Tchad Blake, Bob Schaper, John Paterno, others, engs. AAD? TT: 5:01:49<BR>Performance <B>*****</B><BR> Sonics <B>****</B>
A common complaint about <I>Stereophile</I> is that we review too much expensive equipment that our readers could never afford. Does this bother you, or should we continue to pursue state-of-the-art sound, without regard to cost?
The "Big Five" of the recorded music industry is one step closer to becoming the "Big Four," according to late-January reports from Frankfurt, Germany, home of <A HREF="http://www.bertelsmann.de/">Bertelsmann AG</A>. Bertelsmann is the parent company of <A HREF="http://www.bmg.com/">Bertelsmann Music Group</A>, which has been in merger discussions for several months with the United Kingdom's <A HREF="http://www.emigroup.com/"> EMI Group PLC</A>. Discussions are near completion, according to a BMG official.
After a frustrating late-night duel with evil recording gremlins, JA called it a day. But the next morning he was back at the controls to record Canadian pianist Robert Silverman for what would subsequently become one of <I>Stereophile</I>'s popular audiophile recordings: <I>Intermezzo: Works for Piano by Brahms</I>. In <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//musicrecordings/311/"><I>Intermezzo</I>: The Santa Barbara Sessions</A>, writer Thomas Norton runs down the key events that finally resulted in a completed analog master tape, with engineering from Water Lily Acoustics' Kavichandran Alexander.
Despite the best efforts of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan to extend an unprecedented economic boom, the nation's economy is slowing. The slowdown is causing negative repercussions in many sectors—including the music retailing business and consumer electronics manufacturing.
Sony may be pretending that DVD-Audio doesn't exist, and Panasonic may be in denial about SACD, but a new chip from <A HREF="http://www.ti.com">Texas Instruments</A> just might help bring the rival formats a little closer together in consumer living rooms and professional recording studios alike.
A billion-dollar loss for the parent company may be a big gain for performers under contract to <A HREF="http://www.wmg.com/">Warner Music Group</A>, who will benefit from cross-promotional efforts aimed at millions of <A HREF="http://www.aol.com/">America Online</A> subscribers beginning this month.
Last week, <A HREF="http://www.atcsd.com">American Technology Corp.</A> (ATC) announced that three additional patents on its loudspeaker technologies have been granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10616/">previous story</A>). The company also announced that it has acquired the rights to "strategic" patents from the former Carver Corp. covering a variety of audio reproduction and amplifier technologies.