News

In a never-ending quest to control what it believes is an epidemic of piracy, the music industry in recent years has gone after Internet file-sharing startups, fly-by-night CD duplicators, foreign pirates operating on an industrial scale, college kids with too much time on their hands, and street-corner vendors hawking badly-duped cassettes. At times the anti-piracy campaign has reached the fervor of a witch hunt, with blame laid on the innocent as well as the guilty.

High-end audio and home-theater enthusiasts attending Home">http://www.homeentertainment-expo.com">Home Entertainment 2002, The Hi-Fi and Home Theater Event in New York City on May 31–June 2, 2002, will have an opportunity to participate in a series of interactive seminars and panel discussions on the latest advances in technology—all included with the price of admission.

Back in September of 1986, the KEF">http://www.stereophile.com//loudspeakerreviews/550/">KEF R107 loudspeaker represented the flagship of KEF's much admired Reference Series. Dick Olsher and a variety of other Stereophile scribes profile this important audio achievement over the course of five years, wrapping up with Tom Norton's 1995 review of the R107/2 "Raymond Cooke Signature Edition."

Madrigal's">http://www.madrigal.com">Madrigal's Proceed line of high-end audio products will be phased out some time later this year, according to an April 3 press release.

At the recently concluded SAE-CEA Digital Car Conference in Detroit, representatives of the recording industry joined Panasonichttp://www.panasonic.com">Panasonic; for a DVD-Audio love-fest hailing the format as the "in-car music delivery system of the future." Panasonic's automotive electronics division used the conference and exhibition to introduce and demonstrate its first mobile DVD-Audio systems for OEM distribution. The company also hosted seminars exploring how it imagines DVD-Audio will specifically apply to and benefit the automobile industry.

Echoing the sentiments of their American">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11282/">American counterparts, German music industry executives are blaming the popularity of the CD burner for slumping music sales. "More music is probably being heard now than ever before," said German Recording Industry Association president Gerd Gebhardt, "but the music is not paid for, because copying has become so cheap and easy."

Back in November of 2000, Kalman Rubinson took on the McCormack">http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/545/">McCormack DNA-225 power amplifier, following the rebirth of the company that he had so admired. "McCormack is still the guiding spirit behind these new models, which incorporate aspects of the original designs, much of the SMc upgrades, and some new wrinkles. I quickly put in my bid for a test sample of the DNA-225." His analysis awaits.