<B>EDWARD ELGAR: <I>Enigma Variations</I>, <I>In the South</I>, <I>Coronation March</I></B><BR> George Hurst, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra<BR> Naxos 8.553564 (CD). 1997. Paul Myers, prod.; Dave Harries, eng. DDD. TT: 58:47<BR> Performance <B>****</B><BR> Sonics ****</B>
Many audiophiles spend thousands on state-of-the-art audio equipment, but does it really put you in the room with the performers?
Fiscal year 1998 will be one of diminished expectations for <A HREF="http://www.harman.com">Harman International Industries</A>, Chairman Dr. Sidney Harman announced last week to assembled analysts and fund managers at a meeting in New York. He laid much of the blame on the continuing economic slump in Asia.
Digital radio company <A HREF="http://www.worldspace.com/">American Mobile Radio Corporation</A> announced last Wednesday that it has exercised a $52.9 million option to upgrade its satellites. The move will potentially double the channel capacity of AMRC's nationwide satellite-direct audio radio service (SDARS), scheduled for the year 2000.
On June 17, <A HREF="http://www.carltonplc.co.uk/">Carlton Communications</A>, owner of Technicolor, announced that it has entered into a merger agreement to acquire <A HREF="http://www.nimbuscd.com/">Nimbus CD International</A>, one of the world's largest independent manufacturers of optical discs, including CD-Audio, DVD, DVD-ROM, and CD-ROM.
The "world's largest bookstore" may be on its way to becoming one of the biggest music stores, too. Two weeks ago, <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com">Amazon.com</A> began a big push into CD retailing, more than doubling the number of its musical offerings to over 100,000 titles. (Competitor <A HREF="http://www.cdnow.com">CDnow</A> offers over 500,000 titles.) Visitors to the Amazon website can now click on a tab that will take them to a new music site, where they can listen to audio previews and read reviews, reprints of articles on bands and musicians, and music-industry news.
With the plethora of CD and DVD formats out there, it can be confusing figuring out what will work with what. Standards can help define specifications for a particular format, but often do little to guarantee compatibility between them.
<B>The Sessions: Wes Phillips</B>
With the single-ended triode resurgence of recent years causing much debate about tubes vs. transistors, what has been your experience?
From the Show: