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MP3.com Will Store CD Copies on its Site

Barry Willis Jan 16, 2000 First Published: Jan 16, 2000

San Diego-based MP3.comhttp://www.mp3.com/">MP3.com;, a premier website for distributing the music of unsigned bands, has announced a new program called Beam-it, via which copies of commercial CDs will be stored at the site. The copies will be instantly available to customers who have purchased the music from affiliated online retailers, company officials said. About 40,000 CDs have already been archived on the site.

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Naim's Julian Vereker: May 7, 1945 - January 14, 2000

Paul Messenger Jan 16, 2000 First Published: Jan 16, 2000

On January 14, anyone calling Naim Audio heard an Elgar recording, and visitors to the Naim">http://www.naim-audio.com">Naim website forum learned the sad news that founder and managing director Julian Vereker had died. The company—indeed, British hi-fi as a whole—is mourning the loss of one of its brightest and strongest personalities.

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Added to the Archives This Week

Stereophile Staff Jan 09, 2000 First Published: Jan 09, 2000

Jonathan Scull writes: "Cable dressing is actually a rather delicate issue that requires a certain leap of faith. The concept is so simple that even I can explain the science to you." And explain he does. Read "Fine">http://www.stereophile.com//finetunes/188/">"Fine Tunes #7" to learn the whole story.

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Day 3 of the 2000 CES

Jon Iverson Jan 08, 2000 First Published: Jan 08, 2000

Digital perfectionists Meridian obviously pulled out all the stops on their new flagship speaker product, the DSP8000. Checking in at $45,000/pair, the eight-driver Digital Active design is expected to hit the market sometime in March. Meridian claims the three-way powered speaker has a 24/96 digital input on the back and processes the digital signal internally with two 100MHz DSP engines operating with 24/192 resolution. Also on display were the new DSP33s, also Digital Active but more modestly priced at $4500/pair.

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CES: No Easy Anwers for High-End Growth Problems, Panelists Agree

Jon Iverson Jan 08, 2000 First Published: Jan 08, 2000

The music business is a $13-billion-a-year industry, but the high-end audio industry reaches only a tiny fraction of the music lovers that number represents. "Everybody loves music, so why don't they love specialty audio?" was the question addressed to a group of industry experts at one of a series of AudioCafe.com-sponsored">http://www.audiocafe.com/">AudioCafe.com-sponsored panel discussions on Friday, January 7, at the Alexis Park, during the 2000 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

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Day 2 of the 2000 CES

Jon Iverson Jan 06, 2000 First Published: Jan 06, 2000

High-end audio in trouble? That's been the consensus the last few years, but the sheer number of new products at this year's Consumer Electronics Show hints at a steady trend in the opposite direction. New developments in power conditioning abound, and several brave companies are even testing the SACD/DSD and DVD-Audio waters.

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Soul & Jazz Greats Mayfield, Washington, & Earland Die

Barry Willis Jan 02, 2000 First Published: Jan 02, 2000

The month of December was particularly hard on the music world, which lost three of its greatest talents within a few days of each other: Curtis Mayfield, Grover Washington, Jr., and Charles Earland. All were in their late 50s.

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Independent Jazz Gets a Shot in the Arm

Jon Iverson Jan 02, 2000 First Published: Jan 02, 2000

It's been a tough year for some of the audiophile record labels, as witnessed by the demise in late November of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (see previous">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10614/">previous story). The shock of MoFi's sudden departure even prompted Kimber Kable's Ray Kimber to fire off an e-mail to everyone within virtual reading range, urging them to buy a few audiophile CDs and LPs right now, before it's too late.

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Threshold Service to Debut Soon

Barry Willis Jan 02, 2000 First Published: Jan 02, 2000

Owners of Threshold electronics will soon have an expert service organization available for their amplifiers and preamps. Threshold Corporation national sales manager Chris">mailto:CE@thresholdservice.com">Chris English reports that he has assumed the presidency of a new company to be devoted solely to servicing Threshold equipment. Based in Texas, Threshold Service Company will employ factory-trained technicians and engineers, and will offer warranties on all their work.

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Added to the Archives This Week

Stereophile Staff Jan 02, 2000 First Published: Jan 02, 2000

Now that the big odometer has finally turned over, John Atkinson takes a moment to look back at the last 50 years of music reproduction—the era of high-end audio. Writing in "Happy">http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/185/">Happy New Audio Millennium," JA offers a little perspective on where audiophiles have traveled this last half century, and where we haven't.