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New Cantus CD recorded by <I>Stereophile</I>'s John Atkinson

For Deep River, his third recording of Minnesotan male-voice choir Cantus, Stereophile editor John Atkinson traveled to Sioux Falls, SD, where the city has spent millions of dollars to transform the downtown high school into a gloriously warm-sounding, state-of-the-art performing arts center.

Cantus' previous two Atkinson-recorded CDs, Let Your Voice Be Heard and Against the Dying of the Light, are very different from one another. Voice is a lighthearted world-music romp, Light a moving progression through death, remembrance, salvation, and acceptance that pays homage to those…

Added to the Archives This Week

Back in 1979, most of us had never seen a digital audio product, much less heard one, but J. Gordon Holt knew what was coming: "The beginning of 1979 saw the introduction of the first samples of what will finally, after 79 years of supremacy, lower the curtain on the mechanically-traced disc: The digital recording." In "High Fidelity at the Crossroads," Holt looks at the new twinkle in Sony's eye and makes some sage observations.

What gives---John Atkinson reviewing $249/pair speakers? JA does indeed put the audiophile screws to the PSB Alpha A/V loudspeaker, a product that has earned a…

Home Entertainment 2001 Finds a Time and a Place

Home Entertainment 2001 (formerly The HI-FI Show) is heading back to the heart of New York for the first time in five years. Described as "a unique hands-on event where attendees will see and hear the newest and the best in home audio and home theater," HE 2001 will take place May 11–13 at the Hilton New York.

Exhibitor and contact information is online now, while a complete list of live music events, audio/video seminars, panel discussions, and other special programs will be added to the HE 2001 website later this year. Show attendees wanting to plan ahead can call (800) HILTON for a…

Tymphany Corporation

One of the most enduring obstacles confronting audio engineers has been how to generate powerful low bass without the need for large loudspeaker enclosures. It's been generally accepted that really effective low bass means moving large quantities of air, which in turn means large drivers in large cabinets. Large loudspeakers, unfortunately, don't meet the approval of many dcor-conscious homeowners. It's a longstanding problem for music lovers, home theater fans, and custom installers.

That problem may have been solved by Silicon Valley startup Tymphany Corporation, which debuted its "high-…

Music Notes

On April 9, the European Commission announced that it was suspending its antitrust investigation into the proposed merger between the music divisions of Sony Corporation and German media conglomerate Bertelsmann AG.

EU regulators will reportedly seek more information about the two companies, their potential 50/50 partnership, and the music business in general to determine whether the deal violates EU rules. If approved, a Sony-BMG merger would cut the music industry's "Big Five" major labels to four. EU regulators previously blocked a similar proposal that would have combined EMI Group PLC…

Home Entertainment 2004—Day Three

Saturday is always the crunch day at the Home Entertainment Show. There are more people in the halls, more bodies in the rooms, and more noise everywhere—and it's wonderful. People here really speak our language: audiogeek spoken here.

One of the things most frequently spoken about here is the absence of musical events during show hours, which dedicated attendees have always used to re-calibrate their ears, rest their aching feet, and reconnect with audio buddies who have wandered off on their own (footnote 1). Fortunately, the blues lunch featuring Honeyboy Edwards, courtesy of Acoustic…

SDMI Applies Legal Pressure to Suppress Hacks

Back in September, the Secure Digital Music Initiative issued a public challenge that offered cash rewards for successfully uncovering and removing watermarks from recorded music. The challenge was met by a number of hackers, most notable among them Professor Edward Felten of Princeton University's Computer Science Department.

Felten and a group of colleagues—graduate students at his own institution as well as researchers at Rice University in Houston and at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in Silicon Valley—made quick work of several SDMI watermarking technologies, including one by…

TIJ Seeks Protection

The music industry's worst nightmare is coming true: feeble attempts to shackle compact discs with "protection" are falling prey to simple felt pen hacks. And it's too late to build use-restriction and tracking technologies directly into CD players and existing computer CD drives.

But the record labels are having better luck getting use-restriction circuitry installed in devices that support newer formats such as SACD and DVD-Audio. Verance and Texas Instruments Japan (TIJ) announced last week that TIJ will begin incorporating Verance's patented audio use restriction and content…

Jobs on Record Execs: "They're greedy."

As we reported August 29, Sony BMG and the Warner Music Group, among others, have begun questioning the now defacto per song price of 99¢ set by Apple's iTunes Music Store.

On September 20, Apple CEO Steve Jobs weighed in on that question. "If they want to raise the prices, it means that they are getting greedy," Jobs said. "If the price goes up, [consumers] will go back to piracy and everybody loses."

Hmmm. We agree that consumers probably would feel misused if the prices went up, but we aren't so certain that downloading "piracy" caused all of the woes the record industry pins on…

New Directions for Key Execs

April brought several important executive changes to the audio industry.

On the 15th, PSB Speakers announced David L. Smith’s appointment as director of product development. Formerly president and chief engineer of Snell Acoustics, Smith will be responsible for guiding product development on all PSB brand loudspeakers, including high-performance products and specialty items for the custom installation market. PSB products have a well-earned reputation for excellent value.

"I am very pleased to be joining PSB," Smith stated. "The company has a great reputation worldwide, both for…