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June 1 Marks Transition for <I>Stereophile</I>

James Dunning, Jr., Chairman and CEO of The Petersen Companies, Inc., announced June 4th the completion of the acquisition of Stereophile 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.

The Petersen Companies announced in a release on May 18, 1998 that they had agreed to acquire Stereophile, Stereophile Guide to Home Theater, and HI-FI '98. The acquisition was completed on May 31, 1998. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

However, readers can rest…

Audio Device Promises New Highs in Lows

There's not a lot of music in the bottom octave, and there's not a lot of information in the low bass of a movie soundtrack. But there is a lot of power down there in the rumbling subterranean region—power that adds palpable realism to every type of home entertainment. That's why we go to extremes in our search for low-frequency reinforcement: full-range loudspeakers, and multiple subwoofers, and digital room-correction systems.

You can never have too much bass, some people believe. Guitammer Company, a Westerville, Ohio startup, is taking low-frequency reinforcement to the next level:…

Added to the Archives This Week

Amplifier of the year? We'll have to wait until the votes are tallied in the December issue, but Paul Bolin reviews the Halcro dm58 monoblock power amplifier and reveals what the fuss is all about. As Bolin notes, "the sheer audacity of Halcro's claims generated much curiosity and interest."

Michael Fremer was eager to get his paws on the Lumen White Whiteflame loudspeaker, in spite of its hefty price of $38,000/pair. MF says, "Rarely has the debut of a new loudspeaker company and its inaugural model created as big a buzz as did Lumen White and their Whiteflame speaker at the 2001…

Fortuna Offers Pre-loaded Classical Server

On May 4, Fortuna Classical Music announced release of their Maestro music server, "the first and only music player for the classical music enthusiast." Maestro's launch coincides with a major two-page centerfold spread in the June issue of Gramophone magazine's North American edition, followed by a single-page Gramophone advertisement in July that will include a promo CD.

Designed specifically for classical music lovers and audiophiles, the Maestro hard-drive player comes loaded with a proprietary software-management package that includes everything necessary to navigate and manage a…

XLO Oops

In his January "Sam's Space" column, while writing about the system he used with Sutherland's Director line stage (p.32), Sam Tellig wrote "For the most part, I used now-discontinued XLO interconnects and speaker cables. XLO itself has been discontinued, alas. I do miss its founder, Roger Skoff."

I must have been asleep at the wheel the day I edited Sam's copy. While the specific cables Sam uses are no longer available, XLO itself is still alive and kicking, under the ownership of Ultralink, as we reported here back in 2002. Even Roger Skoff is still around, as an Ultralink consultant. My…

Bucks Up for XM Radio

XM Satellite Radio Holdings is now in a position to operate well into the fourth quarter of 2002, thanks to a $129 million stock offering underwritten by Morgan Stanley Company. XM made the announcement in a press release dated December 10.

The total allotment of XM stock was 11.5 million shares, according to the announcement. That, combined with a recent $66 million financing agreement with Boeing Company, should be sufficient to keep XM afloat for the next year, company officials believe.

The financing was necessary to insure XM's operations while it builds a subscriber base,…

"Like Having Big Brother in Your Stereo."

The Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) appears to be the antidote to many a record executive's worst audio poison: legions of young music fans downloading digital audio files off the Internet and passing them around with no regard to copyright restrictions. But what might be the answer to some companies' prayers could prove to be the Big Brother nightmare feared by others.

In response to the major-label support of SDMI, Musicians United, in association with Timpani and Free-Music.com, announced last week the launch of the Art-To-Heart Open Music Format Initiative to protect the Fair…

Internet Music Distribution Might Heat Up in Wake of AOL-TW Deal

At the moment, music fans who want to add to their collections by trolling the Internet are limited to bootlegs of dubious quality and legality, low-resolution shareware from innumerable unsigned bands, and teaser samples intended to help sell CDs by mail. Despite the subject's near-constant presence in the media, sales of downloadable music amounted to only about $1 million in 1999—as compared to total music sales of approximately $13 billion. The trickle of business is in large part due to reluctance by the music industry to open up its vaults because of a lack of copyright protection.

…

Blue Man Group Says It Can't Fit into Stereo

One of the challenging attributes of the new DVD-Audio format is the ability to release music in high-resolution multichannel (four or more) sound. For some this will be a thorny issue: Can previously released recordings be remixed to take advantage of the extra channels without sounding gimmicky? Should classical and/or live recordings use the surround channels for concert-hall ambience? How long will it be until consumers even care about setting up their systems to take advantage of more than two full-bandwidth channels?

Give artists a new tool like multichannel sound, however, and some…

Busman's Holiday, China Style

If you're an audiophile—and let's face it, who else would be reading this—then you know what any hard-core audioweenie would do when visiting a strange city. Visit the hi-fi shops, of course.

Even if it's your first visit to China and you're only there for four days.

I recently visited Shenzhen, with a brief holdover in Hong Kong and the New Territories, and being about as hard-core as they come, it never occurred to me to demur when my hosts suggested I spend two precious afternoons of my China trip visiting audio emporia. In fact, I looked forward to it.

Shenzhen, or more…