"How much fun can you have with an audio component?" asks Michael Fremer as he kicks off his review of the Musical Fidelity CD-Pre24 CD player-preamplifier. Fremer gleefully exclains, "Think of the CD-Pre24 as a CD player with a bonus analog preamplifier, bonus digital switching facility, and analog and…
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From the current issue, Wes Phillips and John Atkinson tell the story of Against the Dying of the Light: the Second Cantus CD. Phillips sets out to find the true genesis of this astonishing new recording from the Minnesota-based male-voice choir, while JA fills in the technical details.
The numbers are up for Sirius Satellite Radio. On June 23, the New York–based digital broadcaster announced that it had exceeded 100,000 subscribers for its 100-channel music/news/entertainment service. Sirius offers 60 channels of commercial-free music and 40 channels of news, sports, talk shows, comedy, and other programming.
The 100k milestone is an encouraging development for the company, which expects to see further growth in sign-ups following the introduction of new "Plug and Play" digital satellite receivers this month and next. Kenwood's "Here2Anywhere" gear arrived at consumer…
In an aggressive move into the used audio equipment market, New York retailer Harvey Electronics announced last week that the company will begin to sell used audio products and special purchases of new merchandise on eBay, an online auction site, beginning June 1, 1999. The company also recently announced that it will sell merchandise through other website partnerships.
Franklin Karp, president of Harvey, stated that "our efforts on eBay are part of our evolving strategy to increase sales from Internet commerce. Selling quality used audio products and special manufacturers' promotions on…
Anthony H. Cordesman and John Atkinson tackle the classic Vandersteen 2C loudspeaker in a review from 1986. "Whenever I think of cone speaker systems, I think of three brand names: Snell, Thiel, and Vandersteen," says Cordesman, prompting JA to add, "I must say that I just don't understand how Richard Vandersteen can sell the 2Ci at a hair under $1200/pair and expect to make any money."
From 1992, we have Martin Colloms' review of the Sonus Faber Extrema loudspeaker. He exclaims, "The Extrema represents one of the fullest expressions of the art of speaker design: performance rules…
Audiogon/Videogon.com—the online resource for buying and selling high-end audio and video equipment—has joined forces with Primedia and the Elf Foundation for a charity auction, which will be held at the Home Entertainment 2003 Show in San Francisco, June 6–8, 2003.
According to Stephen Clay, CFO of Audiogon/Videogon.com, "We are jointly seeking contributions of audio and video equipment to auction off to the highest bidder online during the Show. All proceeds will be donated to the Elf Foundation—a favorite charity of the home-entertainment industry. The Elf Foundation's mission is '…
Back in January of 2002, we reported that loudspeaker manufacturer NHT and DEQX (then known as ClarityEQ) had begun to co-develop a new line of active loudspeakers using DEQX's custom digital room correction technology. It's two years later, and NHT says it is finally ready to unveil the first speaker system incorporating digital signal processing (DSP) developed during the alliance.
NHT says that its first DSP-based system will consist of small satellite speakers, a unique powered subwoofer, and an outboard electronic component housing a DSP processor and class-D amplifiers. The company…
The continuing legal attacks on Napster, the free file-sharing software, and on MP3.com, the downloadable music site, have spooked investors, according to the financial press. MP3.com's stock got hammered hard, dropping by about 40% almost immediately in the wake of a recent decision by US District Court judge Jed S. Rakoff in favor of the Recording Industry Association of America's copyright-violation complaint against the Internet startup.
One beneficiary of the abandonment of the "free music" movement has been Emusic.com, a downloadable music site boasting strategic agreements with 600…
One by one, free music sites are disappearing. On January 19, Amsterdam-based KaZaA became the latest, caving in to threats of fines in excess of $40,000 per day.
KaZaA had been the defendant in a copyright infringement case brought against it last year by Buma-Stemra, a Dutch authors-and-artists collection agency that performs many of the same services in the Netherlands that BMI and ASCAP perform in the US. The Dutch peer-to-peer file-sharing service was found in violation of copyright law, and had been under court order to prevent "unauthorized downloading of copyrighted material" or…
Audiophiles of every stripe know that achieving a realistic soundstage is maddeningly elusive—some would say impossible. When a system is right for some recordings, it's far off for others.
It's especially difficult with only a single pair of loudspeakers, due to huge variations in room acoustics and the almost always unknown but essential details about how a recording was made. Binaural headphone recording and playback has always offered better spatial cues, sometimes with disturbingly realistic effects. Using a dummy head with microphones placed where human ears would be, recordists can…
Merger mania in high-end land: Loudspeaker manufacturer Hales Design Group and digital audio manufacturer Wadia Digital Corporation are joining forces to create what the companies' executives are calling "new digital products for the new millennium." The announcement was made February 14 at Wadia headquarters in River Falls, Wisconsin.
Under terms of the merger, Hales Design Group, based in Huntington Beach, California, will operate as a division of Wadia while retaining its own brand identity. Throughout the company's six-year history, Hales loudspeakers have won numerous industry awards…