search

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…

And In This Corner . . .

Neither Verance nor Digimarc have made friends in the consumer world, as they continue to develop and implement watermarking technologies used to restrict the use of digital media, such as DVD-Audio and CD discs. Audiophiles, in particular, are resisting any form of restriction technology, such as watermarking, that alters the digital data on a disc at the expense of audio fidelity.

So it is with some amusement that we watch the watermarking heavyweights litigate each other in an attempt to control the patents underlying the restriction technology. Consider the irony: they are accusing…

Music Soothes the Sutured Breast?

According to a study published by anesthesiologists Chakib Ayoub, Laudi Rizk, Chadi Yaacoub, Dorothy Gaal, and Zeev Kain at the Yale School of Medicine, music reduces intraoperative sedative requirements in patients who received surgical procedures under anesthesia.

The study of 36 patients at the Yale–New Haven Hospital and 54 at the American University of Beirut Medical Center had the subjects wear headphones during the procedures. They were randomly chosen to hear music they liked, white noise, or nothing at all, other than the operating room sounds. Blocking the OR sounds with white…

Profitless BMG May Lay Off Hundreds

A year without profits, a revolving door on the top floor, and potentially massive layoffs all spell trouble for BMG Entertainment.

Closing its fiscal year June 30 $150 million in the hole, the music giant has been plagued by infighting among top executives, the death of one, departures by others, and recently, an announcement that hundreds of jobs could be slashed in an effort to regain profitability. A downturn in the global music business and various one-time expenses (some of them related to Internet music ventures) contributed to the loss, according to several reports.

A unit of…

Clear Channel Communications will Unload 72 Stations in Merger Deal

The radio industry's frenzy of mergers and acquisitions has slowed down but hasn't stopped. San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications Inc., one of the largest radio broadcasters in the US, has agreed to acquire AMFM Inc., another major player. The merger will give Clear Channel more than 850 stations nationwide. The deal hinges on Clear Channel unloading 72 of its stations in 27 markets to comply with Federal Communications Commission rules limiting the number of stations that can be owned by a single operator.

Clear Channel announced the divestiture of the stations the second week…

Marantz, Dolby Show off at CEDIA

The annual CEDIA show is mostly about home theater and whole-house entertainment systems, but high-performance audio often gets a share of the limelight, too.

Marantz took advantage of this year's gathering in Indianapolis to unveil a new line of universal disc players capable of full multichannel output from both DVD-Audio discs and Super Audio CDs. Due to arrive at dealers in October, the company's new top-of-the line disc spinner is the DV-9500, an approximately $2100 machine said to be the company's first with "upscaling HDMI output and full DVD-Audio/SACD bass management."

The…

One More Way to Charge Up a Walkman

For years, credit cards have allowed people to earn points toward air travel and automobiles, so earning credits for audio and video gear seems a no-brainer. Last week, Sony Electronics and Citibank launched the Sony Citibank Card, a co-branded credit card that allows consumers to earn points toward the purchase of a variety of Sony entertainment and merchandise.

The new card, dubbed by the two companies the "official currency of playtime," was developed to combine spending and entertainment by offering everything from movie tickets at Sony theaters and music CDs, to DVD players and…

Added to the Archives This Week

From the September 2004 issue, Larry Greenhill sets up the James Loudspeaker EMB-1200 subwoofer, remarking, "Powerful deep-bass response means more than just pure tones. Rather, it requires raw power, tactile surges of air pressure, and a mix of the senses of hearing and touch." LG reports on whether or not the EMB-1200 meets those standards.

Kalman Rubinson checks in with "Music in the Round #7," investigating the ins and outs of the Trinaural processor. KR also reveals his latest picks for worthy surround recordings.

Next, we have a Jonathan Scull interview from October 1998: Jack…

600 Audio CDs On Your PC?

Could the average computer hard drive soon be able to store the equivalent of over 80 DVD-Audio discs or 600 CDs? Last week, IBM announced that it is using just a few atoms of what it has termed "pixie dust" to push back the data storage industry's most formidable barrier, and will effectively quadruple disk drive densities in the next two years.

In the past decade, the data density for magnetic hard disk drives has increased at a rapid pace, first doubling approximately every 18 months and then, since 1997, doubling on average once a year (which is much faster than the vaunted Moore's Law…

Long Live Classical Music!

Last week, Reference Recordings of San Francisco announced that it is planning five new symphonic projects to be recorded by "Prof." Keith Johnson in 88.2kHz, HDCDr 5-channel discrete surround sound. These will be released on standard two-channel compact disc in the coming year, and eventually on DVD audio disc. According to RR, with these ambitious plans, the company hopes to reverse the industry-wide decline in new recordings of classical orchestral music

With Eiji Oue and the Minnesota Orchestra, at sessions in mid-February, RR will record music by Leonard Bernstein (Oue was…