As We See It

Sort By:  Post Date TitlePublish Date
As We See It
The Digital Genie's Out of the Bottle
Jim Austin  |  Dec 12, 2004  |  0 comments
In early 2000, the British magazine The Economist published a lead editorial addressing America Online's acquisition of media giant Time Warner. In the editors' view, TW was a clunky, old-style media company that needed a fresh injection of dot-com blood to help them reach a more narrowly targeted audience. "Sex, shopping and violence," the editors wrote, echoing Internet visionary George Gilder, "...are what people have in common. What differentiates them is their enthusiasm for folk music, tropical fish, or Viennese waltzes."
Continue Reading »
As We See It
Watermarking & the SDMI
Barry Willis  |  Dec 05, 2004  |  First Published: Jan 05, 2001  |  0 comments
Mastering engineer Denny Purcell let out a long sigh. "Does anyone in this room believe that any of this is going to do any good?" he asked. Of the eight or nine people—each with decades of experience in the music and/or audio industries—hanging out at Georgetown Masters Studios for SDMI's Phase II listening tests this past October, not one said "Yes." The consensus: the watermarking issue will probably be dead and forgotten within a year.
Continue Reading »
As We See It
Watermarking & DVD Conspiracy Theories
John Atkinson  |  Dec 05, 2004  |  First Published: Feb 05, 2000  |  0 comments
I've recently been rereading Mark Lane's and Donald Freed's 1970s screenplay cum novel, Executive Action, which develops the theory that John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a conspiracy between organized crime, expatriate Cuban Batistists, and Eisenhower's "military-industrial complex." Long predating Oliver Stone's JFK, the book is fascinating, convincing stuff, from authors who had done considerable research into what really happened in November 1963. But, like all conspiracy theories, it falls down on the hard rock of reality: the more people and organizations are involved in a conspiracy, the less likelihood there is of anything happening at all, let alone going according to plan.
Continue Reading »
As We See It
SACD & DVD-A: Launch Issues
John Atkinson  |  Dec 05, 2004  |  First Published: Oct 05, 1999  |  0 comments
Someone once said that if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door. Well, this month, we will see not one but two better mousetraps, in the form of Sony's and Philips' Super Audio CD and the DVD Forum's DVD-Audio. Both are intended to replace the humble CD, now in its seventeenth year; both offer higher-resolution digital audio; and both offer multiple channels. To accompany SACD, Sony's $5000 SCD-1 two-channel player is now on sale (and will be reviewed in the November Stereophile), while Panasonic has announced October sale dates for two DVD-A players, the $1000 Panasonic DVD-A7 and the $1200 Technics DVD-A10.
Continue Reading »
As We See It
SACD & DVD-Audio: The Pre-Launch Mess
Jon Iverson  |  Dec 05, 2004  |  First Published: Aug 05, 1999  |  0 comments
Audiophiles have a mess on their hands. In a somewhat surreal press conference in May, a half dozen audio luminaries—representing Sony, Philips, and several titans of the high-end recording business—stood on a HI-FI '99 stage looking awkwardly at the audience.
Continue Reading »
As We See It
DVD-Audio—Crippled by Copyright?
John Atkinson  |  Dec 05, 2004  |  First Published: Feb 05, 1998  |  0 comments
"Do you have another DVD player?" asked Classic Records' Michael Hobson. As is usual in important demonstrations, Murphy's Law had struck with a vengeance. The prototype Muse DVD player Kevin Halverson had worked on most of the previous night was refusing to play the DVD Mike had placed in its tray.
Continue Reading »
As We See It
DVD: One Standard to Rule Over Them?
John Atkinson  |  Dec 05, 2004  |  First Published: Dec 05, 1995  |  0 comments
As you can read in this month's "Industry Update" (pp.35 & 37), the two conglomerates who hitherto seemed driven to offer the world two competing standards for the forthcoming Digital Video Disc came to their senses. Instead of consumers being offered Toshiba/Warner/Matsushita's SD and Sony/Philips's MCD, there will be just one high-density 4.75" disc to take both video and audio data storage into the 21st century.
Continue Reading »
As We See It
Copy Rites: Stereophile and the Web
John Atkinson  |  Nov 29, 2004  |  First Published: Sep 27, 1995  |  0 comments
"The idea that intellectual property in a Net-based economy can lose its value horrifies most owners and creators. They'd better get over it."—Esther Dyson, "Intellectual Value" Wired, July 1995, p.136
Continue Reading »
As We See It
Stereophile on the Web
Jon Iverson  |  Nov 29, 2004  |  First Published: Dec 27, 1997  |  0 comments
There has always been something uniquely satisfying about holding a paper magazine in your hand and riffling through its pages. Images and textures are of higher resolution than any video screen, and the ease of use of the paper-page bundle can not easily be replaced. People are developing electronic substitutes for paper, but the interesting thing is that these researchers are endeavoring to imitate the look, feel, and functionality of paper—but with digital inks and charged surfaces. For now, plain old paper and ink are just too perfect a medium to toss when it comes to packing information into a compact, portable, high-quality package.
Continue Reading »
As We See It
Speed Limits & the Music Biz
John Atkinson  |  Nov 08, 2004  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2004  |  0 comments
"Bugger!" A Pennsylvania state trooper had stepped out from behind the overpass on the Turnpike and was aiming his radar gun straight at me. I reflexively jammed on the anchors, which was a) pointless and b) downright dangerous, considering I was in the middle of a phalanx of cars and trucks all cruising 5-10mph over the speed limit. But what can you do?
Continue Reading »
As We See It
Home Theater, Music, or Both?
Robert Harley  |  Nov 05, 2004  |  First Published: Oct 01, 1993  |  0 comments
I've watched from the sidelines with great interest the recent debate in this column over Home Theater (footnote 1) At one extreme is the suggestion that Stereophile begin reviewing video and Home Theater products. The other end of the spectrum was best expressed by John Atkinson at Stereophile's 1993 High-End Hi-Fi Show in San Francisco. Hearing the booming bass overflow of a Home Theater demonstration blasting down a hallway, he said, "They've brought televisions to our hi-fi show!"
Continue Reading »
As We See It
Return to Recommended Components
John Atkinson  |  Oct 15, 2004  |  First Published: Oct 01, 2004  |  0 comments
"Let's face it, we recommend way too many components."
Continue Reading »
As We See It
House Calls & Home Auditions
Jim Austin  |  Sep 09, 2004  |  First Published: Sep 01, 2004  |  0 comments
Conventional wisdom has it that you should listen to an audio component, preferably in your own system, before you decide to buy it. But who, these days, has the opportunity to do this consistently? Even an audition in the store isn't guaranteed; I have to drive two hours to get to the nearest dealer with decent customer service and a good inventory of interesting gear. And though he generally stocks a fairly wide range of components, like any dealer, he carries only a small sample of all the hi-fi gear that's currently, in principle, available.
Continue Reading »
As We See It
Bang For the Buck: Quality vs Cost
John Atkinson  |  Aug 29, 2004  |  First Published: Dec 01, 1998  |  0 comments
It was a powder blue Pinto. Brand new, it drove like a bowl of Jello with wheels. No matter how firmly I gripped the steering wheel, I had no confidence that it had any kind of relationship with the wheels on the road. And pickup? There was none. But because its designers had sacrificed all quality to build it cheaply, the Ford Pinto was equally cheap to rent when I did so back in 1980.
Continue Reading »
As We See It
Music Business—Show Business
John Atkinson  |  Aug 15, 2004  |  First Published: Aug 01, 2004  |  0 comments
Stereophile is devoted to getting the best sound from a home audio system. But as I have written before, audiophiles don't have access to an absolute sound, only to what has been captured in the pits or grooves of their discs, which is itself the result of a creative process. The playing back and the making of recordings are therefore two sides of the same coin. This is why I get actively involved in recording projects and why I publish articles about those projects, the most recent of which appears on p.50. "Project K622" describes the making of a new recording of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto (work number 622 in the Köchel catalog of Mozart's compositions, hence the article's title), which is being released both on hybrid SACD and on 180gm vinyl. (You can buy both from our secure "Recordings" page.)
Continue Reading »

Pages

X