News

The final piece of the TGI/Mordaunt-Short/Epos jigsaw puzzle (see previous story) seems to have fallen into place, with the news that Mike Creek (of the UK's Creek Audio) is purchasing the Epos loudspeaker brand, effective March 1.

The official website of the 41st Annual Grammy Awards was launched earlier this month with the help of a media team from the Atlanta division of International Business Machines. The Java-based site provides background information on the artists and events of the music-awards extravaganza, taking place Wednesday evening, February 24, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

In the classic textbook example, the Doppler effect is demonstrated by an increase in both pitch and volume (or amplitude) of a train's whistle as it approaches a station, followed by a decrease in pitch and volume as it moves away. This effect---the shift of a frequency emitted by a moving object---leads to a fundamental flaw in audio technology. A midrange driver behaves like the approaching-and-departing train when it attempts to reproduce varying frequencies. When the driver is fed simultaneous 400Hz and 2kHz tones, the forward movement of the cone at the lower rate modulates the 2kHz tone upward in pitch and amplitude; when it moves backward it modulates the higher tone downward. (The human eardrum also behaves this way, but the brain's audio-analysis circuitry knows how to deal with it.)

Rare violin dealer Geoffrey Fushi has devoted many of the past several years and a substantial portion of his liquid assets to producing The Miracle Makers, a reference book-and-recording project honoring the works of Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu, late 17th- and early 18th-century makers of the world's most sought-after violins. Fushi is also the founder of the Stradivari Society, a philanthropical organization of violin fanciers who loan their invaluable instruments to gifted students. Members believe that their treasures were intended to make music, not merely to gather dust in heavily guarded vaults.

After dozens of thorny issues slowed its progress (see previous report), last week the DVD Forum announced that its Steering Committee has approved Version 1.0 of the DVD-Audio Disc specifications, making it the fifth of the DVD format family after DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, and DVD-R. According to a statement, the DVD Forum says it will soon publish the DVD-Audio Format Book, which contains the detailed specification of the format, and make it available to authorized companies by "early spring of this year."

After a particularly tough year, Carver Corporation announced last week that it has executed an agreement with founder Bob Carver, who had sold his interest in the company and then started up privately held Sunfire Corporation (see previous story). The new agreement places Sunfire in charge of the development, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution, under the Carver brand name, of a new line of home and car products that will incorporate "new" technologies. The agreement also establishes a new manufacturer's representative and independent dealer network to rebuild Carver Corporation, and for Bob Carver to assume full operational control of the company.

Online readers rejoice: Stereophile is posting the first of what we hope will be many equipment reviews in our Archives database. First up is the Linn Sondek CD12 CD player (recently reviewed in Stereophile), along with a review of the Linn AV 51 System (from the February 1999 issue of Stereophile Guide to Home Theater).