LATEST ADDITIONS

Mergers and acquisitions are among the oldest tactics for commercial ventures that want to increase their power and presence. They are also increasingly popular in the non-commercial sector, according to a March 14 Associated Press report.

Corporate consolidation has been likened to gravity: an inexorable, hard-to-resist force of nature always lurking in the background. D&M Holdings, parent company of Denon and Marantz Japan, has clearly felt its effects, announcing last week its latest acquisition: McIntosh Laboratory.

Exhibitors at Home Entertainment 2003 (HE2003), the premier home theater & specialty audio show, are gearing up for one of the most important international events of the year. HE2003 will take place June 5–8, 2003 at The Westin–St. Francis Hotel in the heart of downtown San Francisco. This historic location will provide the perfect setting to showcase the latest in home audio/video and home theater entertainment. This will be the show's fourth visit to San Francisco—previous events were held in 1989, 1993, and 1997.

Dense, compact, and built to run O-rings around the competition, SME's flagship turntable makes every other design I've encountered—with the possible exception of Rockport's System III Sirius—look almost homemade. I don't mean to insult the many fine, well-engineered designs out there, but I've seen nothing else to compare with SME's tank-like approach to spinning a record. Comparing the Model 30/2 to a tank isn't exactly fair: the machining is done to higher than mil-spec tolerances. I don't think anyone else building turntables today is capable of this level of construction quality, never mind design ingenuity and fit'n'finish.