Next, we bring you the first installment of John Atkinson's comprehensive three-part "Measuring…
search
Ethics and high-end audio have always been a tangled web---especially when it comes to deciding whether to purchase equipment from a helpful local dealer or trying to find the best price possible. In the web reprint of February 1999's "The Final Word," Stereophile's publisher emeritus, Larry Archibald, examines a recent high-end purchase of his own to shed a little light on the dilemma faced by the audiophile grinding for a great deal. Also included are some choice reader responses.
When we received notice several days ago from Panasonic that the company was finally releasing its DVD-Audio players next month, we filed the press release for a couple of days to see if it would last the week (see previous story). Apparently, the products are still a go. Panasonic says it will offer a full line of DVD-Audio/Video models under both the Panasonic and Technics brand names, with the first units arriving in stores in July. As previously announced back in August 1999, the Panasonic DVD-A7 will have a suggested retail price of $999.95, and the Technics DVD-A10 will have an SRP…
At stereophile.com, John Atkinson, Jon Iverson, and I troll the Internet constantly looking for audio-related news, so on November 21,when I spotted an article by John Borland about iTunes outselling traditional retail record outlets like Tower and Borders, I passed it on to the other two without even thinking about it.
"Sounds worth a story," JA suggested. And it was, but it turned out not to be the story most of the media was telling.
Borland reported that the NPD Group had released a survey that compared album downloads at iTunes to complete album purchases at ordinary record…
It's been a rough year for the music industry—and possibly an even rougher one for audiophile labels. The Dorian Group, however, seems to be thriving. Parent company to Dorian Recordings, the Dorian Group announced last week its acquisition of Reference Recordings. During its 25 years in business, RR has consistently garnered praise from audiophiles for the sound quality of its recordings, and has scored eight Grammy nominations and two Grammy awards.
Dorian reports that RR's identity and key staff will remain intact, including the label's famed recording engineer, Keith Johnson. The…
Billboard Magazine announced an agreement this week with Liquid Audio, a developer of secure music-delivery systems on the Internet, to make Billboard's extensive database of album reviews and audio previews available through Billboard Online. The audio portion will be provided in Liquid Audio format by the Music Previews Network, the company that provides Music Previews for Billboard Online.
Billboard is opening its album-review archives (dating back to 1948 and encompassing tens of thousands of albums in all genres) to users on the Internet at no charge. Previously, access had been…
The Three Tenors may have reached a global audience of 2 billion people during their performance prior to the final game of the World Cup, but they had only 80,000 fans on hand in Paris's Champs de Mars park, acording to estimates by Paris police. That number was only 10% of the anticipated 800,000, most of whom stayed away because of unseasonably cold and windy weather.
With James Levine conducting the Orchestre de Paris, the almost-three-hour-long show near the Eiffel Tower featured José Carreras, Luciano Pavarotti, and Plácido Domingo singing popular songs and operatic favorites in…
Financially, the winter months have been all over the map. Some electronics companies have reported upswings in revenue, but others are experiencing a decrease.
In mid-March, Boston Acoustics projected a previously unexpected net operating loss for its fiscal 2005 first quarter, ending May 31, 2004. (BA's fiscal year begins March 1.) Reasons included a 50% cutback in orders from an unnamed major purchaser—rumored to be Tweeter Group—whose prior business accounted for 32% of BA's net sales for the 9-month period ending December 31, a total of $41.1 million.
BA also supplies Ultimate…
Hot Licks: Add another title to UmixIt's catalog of DualDisc Enhanced DVD/CDs: Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry's eponymous solo album, his first since 1984.
UmixIt-enabled discs allow musically minded listeners to load selected songs into their PCs and manipulate the individual tracks of the studio session to create a mix that meets their criteria for sonic success—which might or might not be more "accurate" than the official release. Within the listeners' computers, the tracks are uncompressed, but only compressed MP3 files can be exported to CD-R or MP3 players.
Perry seems impressed…
The Lenbrook Group of Pickering, Ontario, Canada announced March 25 that it will acquire Sonic Frontiers of Oakville, Ontario, Canada. This acquisition, effective May 1, 1998, is an extension of Lenbrook's commitment to enhance its position in the international specialty A/V segment of the consumer electronics industry. A new company, Sonic Frontiers International (SFI), will be formed to leverage Lenbrook's strengths with Sonic Frontiers' market position in the high-end segment of the audio business.
Sonic Frontiers was founded 10 years ago by President and CEO Christopher Johnson and…
While recording the Encore CD for Stereophile, John Atkinson had to decide: "Should I add some artificial reverberation?" After much gnashing of teeth, he plowed ahead. Read about the process in "Encore," an in-depth look at the recording techniques, the artists, and the music.
Next, Thomas J. Norton takes a look at how one high-end loudspeaker company is making the transition to home theater and surround sound in his review of the Vandersteen Music-and-Cinema loudspeaker system. In the final analysis, does an audiophile company's speakers sound better with music or with film?