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…
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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."
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,…
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…
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.
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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…
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…
In a pre–Consumer Electronics Show announcement, Texas Instruments says it has integrated its FireWire (IEEE1394), multichannel audio digital signal processor (DSP), and digital amplifier technologies in a single board to demonstrate an all-digital audio system from source to speaker.
In a press release, TI states that "By combining these technologies onto one board, TI is demonstrating to manufacturers how they can more easily build a high-resolution audio system, such as an A/V receiver or DVD receiver, that incorporates all of the latest features required by discriminating audiophiles…
You've got to give the audiophiles who post at the Audio Asylum online forum credit. Not only is AA one of the more informative and constructive audiophile communities, some of its members provide the audio industry much-needed feedback on how it's doing—for better or worse.
Last week, several AA regulars discovered a potential problem with some recent SACD releases—in particular the new hybrid SACD of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Small cracks were discovered forming around the disc's center spindle hole, often increasing in number over time.
The cracks range in size from…
Tired of the controversy over whether expensive audio cables might make a difference in your system? The best approach would likely be to try a few sets with your own equipment and room and see for yourself. But cost has prevented more than a few audiophiles from spending quality time with the pricey stuff.
Spotting an opportunity, The Cable Company has recently announced that they are opening a new website to serve as an "online buy/sell/trade marketplace" for used high-end audio and video cables at www.usedcable.com. The company says that it can offer a one-year limited warranty and a…
Robert Deutsch says, "There is something special about SETs: a kind of midrange magic, a harmonic rightness that tends to elude other amplifier designs." But how to get more power from a single-ended triode design? In his review of the Air Tight ATM-211 monoblock power amplifier RD discovers one answer.
"Thus it was that those devilish tiny triodes lit their filaments behind mine beady eyes, and the next thing you know...," Jonathan Scull relates, snuggling up to the Lamm Industries ML1 monoblock power amplifier. "Despite its Bomber Command meters, the ML1 is 21st Century under the skin,"…