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…
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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.
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…
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…
Do good things come in small packages? Audio technology over this past half century offers pretty good evidence that they do. Fifty years ago, the long-playing record amazed people with a half-hour of music per side, compared to the 78's few minutes. Thirty years ago, the cassette tape replaced bulky open reels, ushering in a new era of recording capability—and portability—for millions of people. Twenty years ago, the CD began to push the LP out of the way because it packed a little more music into a much smaller and more durable package. Personal radios have long been hugely popular, and…
The DVD Forum's Working Group 4 (WG-4) is expected to deliver the "0.9" version of its official DVD-Audio specification this month, with "1.0" to follow shortly. While information is scarce, it appears that WG-4 is talking about four different kinds of disc, each of which will be playable on one or two of three different kinds of players. And that doesn't include Sony's and Philips' "Super Audio CD" proposal (see Peter van Willenswaard's report on SACD a couple of weeks back on the website), or the Classic Records-led "DAD" format, which uses the provision of the DVD-Video specification for…
One of audio's true originals, Irving "Bud" Fried first made his mark in the late 1950s by becoming an early US importer of Lowther corner horn and Quad electrostatic loudspeakers. By 1975, he had established his own company and began releasing speaker models under the Fried nameplate.
Since that time, Fried has stuck to the principle of "evolutionary design development," incrementally improving his products by perfecting the use of series networks, satellite subwoofers, transmission lines, line tunnels, and distributed loading techniques.
Most recently, the company was acquired by…
Brian Damkroger's audio world may have been in a disorienting flux the last several months, but one thing remained a bastion of stability: the Simaudio Moon Eclipse CD player. Damkroger explains why in his complete report.
Next we have John Atkinson's As We See It from December 2000, Upsampling or Oversampling? JA steps into the controversy surrounding digital upsampling technology, examining what it is and isn't. A reply from mastering engineer Bob Katz is included.
In a related piece, a Follow-up to his in-depth analysis of ultrasonic audio—"What's Going on Up There?"—John…
Editor's Note: This is Part Six of a six-part series from reader Hervé Delétraz of Switzerland, who has chronicled the development of his DIY (do-it-yourself) audio amplifier.
Part One is here
Part Two is here
Part Three is here
Part Four is here, and
Part Five is here
Every human being has his or her own taste in music reproduction. I just tried to build what I believe is the sound I can hear live, with real musicians, without any electronic artifact between them and me. As mentioned before, I now plan to produce a small series of my DIY amplifier, the darTZeel NHB-108…
The music industry is facing its toughest business climate in recent memory, and slow sales are hurting not only the record labels, but music retailers as well. In the face of continuing sales declines, store closings, mergers and consolidations, layoffs, and seemingly intractable digital distribution issues, the industry came together last month for its annual National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) convention and trade show in Orlando, FL.
NARM reports attendance of 1600 at the event, which was kicked off with president Pamela Horovitz observing, "We know how to handle a…
Multichannel music was addressed by several seminars at this year's AES. On Friday, the Center Channel Challenge convened with a trio of recording engineers moderated by DTS's Jeff Levison.
Levison began by noting that the center channel has long been the audio image anchor for cinema, but has not enjoyed widespread popularity for multichannel audio. "We [the recording industry] resisted using the center channel for music at first, and mixed for a phantom center."
With a few years of multichannel music now under the industry's belt, Levison feels that "now we're seeing more and more…