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The inclusion of "hyperlinks" in music CDs that direct music lovers to Sony-affiliated online sales sites has angered the National Association of Recording Merchandisers, a trade organization representing more than 1000 music retailers. NARM has filed suit against Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Coporation of America, seeking an injunction against the use of hyperlinks and charging that the practice of including the links in CDs is a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Asking retailers to sell discs with such embedded links is the "equivalent of asking Tower Records to put posters for…
Myles Astor, publisher of Ultimate Audio, recently announced that former Stereophile contributing editor Jack English has joined his publication as a senior editor.
"Jack's razor-sharp, analytic reviewing style and insightful commentary are enjoyed by audiophiles worldwide. He will focus on the ultimate in high-end audio equipment," Astor said in a press release. "Jack has made many contributions to the industry, most notably helping formalize the language of audio reviewing."
Jack English has a long personal history with high-end audio journalism. He was one of the founders of…
On May 18, 1998, James D. Dunning, Jr., Chairman and CEO of the Petersen Companies, Inc., announced an agreement to acquire Stereophile Magazine and Stereophile Guide to Home Theater---two of this country's leading high-end audio and home-theater publications---as well as HI-FI '98, The Home Theater & Specialty Audio Show.
Upon announcing the agreement to acquire Stereophile, Neal Vitale, President and COO of Petersen Publishing, said, "This acquisition continues Petersen Companies' focus in enthusiast markets. The acquisition of Stereophile Magazine and Stereophile Guide to Home…
On Wednesday evening, June 10, The Academy Advancing High Performance Audio & Video held its 1998 Golden Note Awards at the Marina Del Rey Ritz-Carlton. Following an address by John Hoskins of the Advantage Performance Group, a sales consulting firm, the amiable awards ceremony was MC'd by Paradigm's own stand-up comedian, Rob Sample. AAHPAV's ceaselessly energetic Chairperson Sue Regan assisted in the presentations, as did Academy President Joe Picirilli. And the hard-working winners (drum roll, please) are . . .
Analog Source Design
Grado Reference Series Phono Cartridge,…
Martin Colloms reviewed the Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage loudspeaker back in 1994, finding that "Sonus Faber provides a fascinating and challenging insight into the art of high-quality sound reproduction." But does the diminutive Guarneri breathe real music? Colloms reports.
From the 1988 archives, John Atkinson lends an ear to the Celestion SL700 loudspeaker. Having used the company's SL600 as a small speaker reference for five years, JA set out to determine whether the SL700 could take its place.
Next we have a recent follow-up by Jonathan Scull on the Wadia 27ix & 270, first…
The "Big Five" of the recorded music industry is one step closer to becoming the "Big Four," according to late-January reports from Frankfurt, Germany, home of Bertelsmann AG. Bertelsmann is the parent company of Bertelsmann Music Group, which has been in merger discussions for several months with the United Kingdom's EMI Group PLC. Discussions are near completion, according to a BMG official.
Both BMG and EMI are dominant players in the music business. United, they would control more than 25% of the global market, more than Vivendi's Universal Music, Sony Corporation's Sony Music…
Webcasters will pay a new royalty rate to the recording industry, as of April 3.
Representatives for webcasters, musicians, and music publishers have agreed to a deal that will allow nonsubscription webcasters their choice of payment schedules—0.0762¢ ($0.000762) per performance, on a per-performance, 1.17¢ per aggregate tuning hour, or 10.9% of gross revenues. These rates are for commercial Internet broadcasters, and don't apply to noncommercial enterprises, to radio stations that offer Internet simulcasts, or to small webcasters, who last year agreed to a separate rate schedule under the…
The numbers are up for CDnow. The world's largest online music retailer reported April 30 that its first-quarter sales increased 288% over the same period in 1997. The company took in $10 million in revenue through the period ending March 31, an increase of 26.4% over the previous quarter, in which revenue totaled $7.9 million.
CDnow has registered 432,000 customers since it went online in 1994. 135,000 of those have been added since January 1 of this year. Costs, however, seem to track revenue: the company reported operating expenses of $10.7 million in the same period, and $7.6…
There are probably only a handful of recorded works which could successfully survive the transition from the original two-channel release to a 5.1 surround remix. Queen's 1975 release A Night At The Opera is certainly one of them, and, in fact, the recording was originally scheduled to hit the streets last November as a 5.1 DVD-Audio disc from DTS Entertainment.
A Night At The Opera missed its 2001 DVD-A release date, but it has been rescheduled to appear later this month with revised 5.1 remixes created by Elliot Scheiner, along with Queen's original producer, Roy Thomas Baker, and…
Texas Instruments says it is on a quest to provide "high-performance audio solutions" for the home entertainment market. To prove it, last week the company announced its first stereo analog-to-digital converters supporting the Direct Stream Digital (DSD) specification and the Super Audio CD format (SACD).
According to the company, its new PCM1804 is a differential input 24-bit ADC with a 192kHz maximum sampling rate, a dynamic range of 112dB, and THD+N at -102dB. TI says, "Previously, audio ADCs have required delta-sigma modulators with a 2-bit or greater digital-to-analog converter in a…