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Peer to Peer's Promise

The music industry has been telling us for years that peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing is a bad thing. But a New York company has decided the record labels had it wrong and that it merely needed to harness P2P's power.

Wurld Media announced last week that Peer Impact, its P2P online digital download service, has now signed agreements with all four major labels: Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and most recently, EMI Music.

Instead of itself redistributing music, Wurld says that Peer Impact offers a viable peer-to-peer alternative to unauthorized services and allows…

New Website!

It's been a while since the Stereophile website was freshened up. Probably too long. So this time we decided to start from scratch and combine the stack of reader suggestions we've received with the thousands of articles and other features already online to create something that we hope scratches your audiophile itch better than ever.

Stereophile Forums
With all of the excellent audio forums already out there, we thought long and hard about what we could offer that would add to an audiophile's daily web tour. Editor John Atkinson and forum moderators Stephen Mejias (hardware) and Robert…

Bang & Olufsen Hits the Road

Danish audio-video manufacturer Bang & Olufsen has long been known for its unusual product designs. Eschewing the normal tendency of consumer electronics manufacturers to design their circuits and transports into stackable black boxes, the company's current home-audio line includes colorful vertical CD stacks with sliding clear-glass doors and brushed-aluminum cylindrical speakers.

On June 11, Bang & Olufsen announced that it has paired with American manufacturer and distributor Visteon Automotive Systems to develop a new line of audio products for the automotive market. The…

Continuing Coverage of CES

Audiophiles on a budget will be pleased to learn that not everything on display at Alexis Park requires a second mortgage. We were particularly impressed by the Audes model 037 loudspeaker, of similar size and sound to Revel's excellent Performa F-30. At $1200/pair, the Audes offers extraordinary value. All the company's products, including the drivers, are made in Estonia for export to North and South America, Western (and parts of Eastern) Europe, and Asia. The company has yet to establish a dealer network in nearby Russia because of economic uncertainties there, according to an Audes…

Dunlavy Closes Doors

Earlier this month, an unambiguous and simple message went up on the Dunlavy Audio Labs web site: "As of November 7, 2002, Dunlavy Audio Labs, LLC has ceased operations." A phone call to the company confirms that it is indeed out of business, although Dunlavy president Keny Whitright did not return calls seeking comment.

The company had been founded in 1992 by loudspeaker designer John Dunlavy and had changed hands at the end of 2001 when it was sold by John and Joan Dunlavy to Wybron, Inc., a professional lighting manufacturing firm. Wybron had been founded by music-industry veteran…

TAG McLaren Sold

Rumors have been circulating for some weeks now that the Chinese-owned, UK-based International Audio Group (IAG), which owns and operates the Quad and Wharfedale brands, was in talks with TAG McLaren, with the intention of taking over the latter's Audio division.

Such a scenario seemed quite feasible. Although TAG McLaren entered the business with great enthusiasm in 1997, first by purchasing the Audiolab brand and then, under its own name, developing its own range of innovative stereo, multichannel, and A/V products, problems emerged during the summer of 2003.

An October 2003…

Broadcast News

Broadcast flag on trial: On February 22, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear oral arguments in a lawsuit brought against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding its plans to institute the broadcast flag rule. The "broadcast flag" is essentially encryption embedded in digital television signals that would not permit recording devices such as personal video recorders, iPods, cellular phones, or VCRs to record over-the-air digital transmissions without the permission of the broadcaster. The suit, sponsored by diverse organizations…

How's That Again?

Researchers at the International Center for Hearing and Speech Research (ICHSR) have found that age-related hearing loss may be all (or at least mostly) in your head rather than a problem with your ears.

At the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology in New Orleans in February, Robert D. Frisina, PhD, professor of Otolaryngology at the University of Rochester Medical Center and an adjunct professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, suggested that a great deal of the hearing loss associated with getting older was probably a function of processing, not aural…

Post HE 2001 Wrap-Up

The Home Entertainment 2001 show, held in New York City May 11–13, 2001, received high marks and a standing ovation from show attendees, who came to experience some of the most innovative and exciting consumer electronics products in decades.

Back in New York by popular demand after a five-year hiatus, the three-day Show, held at the Hilton Hotel & Towers in Manhattan, welcomed a total of 12,387 audio and music enthusiasts through its doors—they crowded hallways and jammed elevators for a chance to see and hear more than $10 million worth of equipment from more than 200 exhibitors in 80…

Cirrus Logic Buys Patents from B&W Loudspeakers

In an unusual move, chipmaker Cirrus Logic has purchased patents for Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) technology owned by B&W Loudspeakers, a leading UK manufacturer. The patents will be used in combination with current Cirrus Logic technology in a new line of digital amplifiers, according to an October 2 news release.

PWM technology can reduce power consumption and design complexity in audio amplifiers. The agreement will allow Austin, Texas–based Cirrus Logic to incorporate several important aspects of digital amplifier design into its next generation of products. The intention is to…