So states the official proclamation that vinyl activist Gary Freiberg is holding up before me. The richly illustrated and important looking sheaf of thick paper…
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"The vinyl record should be commemorated, not forgotten, for its unique contribution to our society. Therefore the County of San Luis Obispo, in the state of California, proclaims a celebration of the memories of music. 'Vinyl Record Day' will be celebrated to acknowledge vinyl records' influence on individuals and cultures worldwide. The date is August 12th, the date of the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison in 1877."
With SACD and DVD-Audio rumbling off in the distance, is the high-end CD player dead? Michael Fremer takes a listen to the Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 3D CD player and reports that the company decided it was "better to concentrate efforts on trying to optimize the sound of the two billion CDs already in play than divert company resources into developing technology and products aimed at an uncertain digital future and an unsettled customer base."
For his Fine Tunes #40, Jonathan Scull takes a trip to France, where he finds that, with the right tweaks, even the most modest of systems can rise…
We've just posted something new for sale on Stereophile's Recordings page. But this is not just any new CD release—it's a comprehensive 10-CD boxed set of Robert Silverman performing the 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas, recorded by our very own John Atkinson. Cheapskates rejoice: the complete 10-disc set retails for a very reasonable $65, bringing the price of each CD in the box to a mere $6.50.
The boxed set has been released on the Canadian Orpheum Masters label and is officially titled Ludwig van Beethoven's 32 Piano Sonatas (Orpheum Masters KSP830). Beautifully packaged, the set includes…
High-end audio in trouble? That's been the consensus the last few years, but the sheer number of new products at this year's Consumer Electronics Show hints at a steady trend in the opposite direction. New developments in power conditioning abound, and several brave companies are even testing the SACD/DSD and DVD-Audio waters.
Transparent Audio is demonstrating several power conditioners, including the new four-outlet Power Isolator ($1500), and other products aimed at the custom installation and home-theater markets. Transparent also had a new line of in-wall speaker wire on hand, with…
The Napster saga continues. As reported last week, software maker Napster and several colleges were looking at a likely court battle, instigated by music group Metallica and others attempting to prevent their songs from being distributed via MP3 audio files without official consent or payment of royalties. After Metallica announced its suit, rapper Dr. Dre also jumped in, giving Napster until last Friday to remove links to his work.
Two schools named in the original suit, Yale and Indiana Universities, have decided to now ban the Napster software utility's use by students on campus…
Following a recent announcement of "diminished expectations" for the near future (see previous story) and a shakeup of upper management---in which Consumer Group marketing honcho Tom Jacoby was put out to pasture and audio guru Floyd Toole was promoted to senior vice president of acoustic and transducer engineering---Harman International Industries has put the finishing touches on a new 10,000-square-foot audio laboratory. At company headquarters in Northridge, CA, north of Los Angeles, the laboratory includes a 10,000-cubic-foot anechoic chamber for testing and measuring loudspeakers, and a…
On March 20, at the CeBIT '98 convention in Hanover, Germany, several leading manufacturers of CD-ReWritable (CD-RW) drives and media announced that the market for CD-RW products has grown much faster than originally predicted.
The announcement was made at a joint event hosted by Hewlett-Packard, Mitsubishi, Philips, Ricoh, Sony, and Yamaha. Mikel Dodd, Chairman and CEO of Philips Optical Storage, attributed the rapid acceptance of CD-RW to improving software and hardware solutions, decreasing price points, and the increasing need for off-line storage and data interchange created by the…
SunnComm and others have been trying for years to find ways to prevent consumers from copying music discs. While their success in preventing digital copies has been mixed, lurking in the background was a problem many felt could never be solved.
This fundamental obstacle to effective copy restriction is typically known as the "Analog Hole." Once the audio signal is streamed into memory, or converted to analog output, the original analog music track can then be resampled to another digital recording device, captured by software in memory, or recorded from the speakers/pre-amp output and…
During this week's Home Entertainment Expo, high-tech entertainment fans will get to enjoy some of the best audio and video gear to be found on the planet. A few lucky ones will get to take some of it home—free.
Monster Cable will give away a Monster Home Theatre Reference PowerCenter™ HTS 5100 every day the show is open to the public—Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The HTS 5100 is an advanced AC power filter featuring Monster's proprietary "Stage 4 v2.0" isolation and filter technology, claimed to prevent AC power line noise from affecting component performance.
Attendees need only…
PC, Communications, and Consumer Electronics Companies Unite to Establish Wireless Spec for the Home
Several companies spanning the personal computer, communications, and consumer electronics industries announced March 4th the formation of a working group that will develop a specification for wireless communications in the home. This specification will allow PCs, peripherals, cordless telephones, and consumer electronic devices to communicate and interoperate with one another.
The Home Radio Frequency Working Group (HRFWG) expects to publish the open specification for home wireless communications, called the Shared Wireless Access Protocol (SWAP), later this year. The HRFWG is led by…