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Added to the Archives This Week

As Paul Messenger states in his 2000 review of the Linn Arkiv B phono cartridge, "This Stereophile review is long overdue. Furthermore, this review addresses a complaint often directed against reviews and reviewers: that we rarely spend enough time with a component to gain a properly balanced, long-term perspective."

Next we have David Lander's interview from the December 2003 issue, Dan D'Agostino of Krell: Power Is As Power Does. Lander probes D'Agostino on how he went from tinkering with 78rpm disc cutters to state-of-the-art audiophile products.

"Bass management? We don't need no…

The Music Industry's Explosive Decompression

This time last year the music industry was ready to celebrate. Compact disc sales were up for the first time in years, peer-to-peer file-sharing networks were reeling from lawsuits, ringtone sales were proving unexpectedly profitable, and legitimate (paid-for, that is) downloads were rising. But this year, Jim Urie, president of Universal Music Group, told The Wall Street Journal that Christmas 2005 was "a bleak holiday season at the end of a bleak year."

Why? Because CD sales for 2005 were down nearly 8% compared with 2004. For some outlets, the numbers were even worse—Virgin Megastores…

Polk Announces Disposition of Eosone and Genesis Interests

Back in January of this year, we reported that loudspeaker manufacturer Polk Audio had purchased an interest in Genesis Technologies, a loudspeaker and digital electronics manufacturer, with an option to buy the company in three years. Last week, however, Polk announced that it has decided to pass the company on to new investors.

Polk stated that they have "reached an agreement in principle with The Providers, Inc. (TPI) of Vail, Colorado and certain of its affiliates to dispose of Polk's registered trademark 'Eosone' along with certain inventories, as well as Polk's entire holdings of…

HD-Audio Heats Up

What initially took form in college dorm rooms and computer geeks' homes only a few short years back looks ready to break into the mainstream audio market this year. Hard-disk–based audio systems are becoming more common as both consumer electronics and computer manufacturers rush to bring products to market.

The latest manufacturer to join the growing HD-audio ranks is Marantz, which, last week, announced its intention to expand into the audio server market with an agreement to produce a hard-disk–based music server in partnership with Imerge. Imerge has been marketing its own HD-audio…

DVD-Audio Forum Addresses Questions about New Format

On November 16, Technics and Panasonic presented their DVD-Audio Q&A Forum to answer questions online about the new high-end audio format, players, and software. After introductions and an opening orientation about DVD-Audio, the first "questions" appeared, canned, as the panelists read "answers" from their notes. Still, some interesting information came to light.

Within minutes of beginning the Forum, Alberto Reggiani of Technics broached the subject of when the first players will appear, although his predictions were frustratingly vague: "We are now in the beginning of what we call…

Added to the Archives This Week

Chip Stern notes that, "as often as not, it ain't the heat—it's the stupidity. When confronted by the smattering of self-referential dilettantes, acrimonious Internut wannabes, and obsessive-compulsive types who suck the air out of our aural fun-house, I find myself overcome with the desire to program my phaser for Clip." And fire away he does in "Snobs, Slobs, & Marley's Ghost," added to the Archives this week.

In "Fine Tunes" #25, Jonathan Scull gets caught up with notes from several readers about cost-effective outlets, preventing a shocking experience, and record shelves.

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<I>The Miracle Makers</I> Debuts at Steinway Hall

Rare violin dealer Geoffrey Fushi has devoted many of the past several years and a substantial portion of his liquid assets to producing The Miracle Makers, a reference book-and-recording project honoring the works of Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu, late 17th- and early 18th-century makers of the world's most sought-after violins. Fushi is also the founder of the Stradivari Society, a philanthropical organization of violin fanciers who loan their invaluable instruments to gifted students. Members believe that their treasures were intended to make music, not merely to…

Pacific Microsonics Announces New HDCD Chip

High-definition audio is on its way to a DVD player near you. Pacific Microsonics has introduced a new High Definition Compatible Disc chip, the PMD-200, for the next generation of CD and DVD players. The device is a "feature-rich audio IC that provides HDCD processing for both the CD and DVD formats," according to a February 11 company press release.

The PMD-200, which can handle 100 million instructions per second (100mips), is based on Motorola's high-performance DSP56364 platform, and accepts up to 24-bit input data at sampling rates from 44.1kHz to 192kHz. "In addition to featuring…

Numbers Up for Harvey, Tweeter; Good Guys Stagnant

The year has been a good one so far for New York's Harvey Electronics and for national electronics retailer the Tweeter Group. The news isn't so rosy for West Coast chain the Good Guys.

On July 19, Harvey Electronics, Inc. announced increased sales for the month ended June 23, 2001 and for the previous eight months. For the month, net sales amounted to $2.6 million, a 15.7% increase over the same month last year. For the eight months ended June 23, net sales totaled $26 million, an increase of approximately $5 million, or 12.8%, over the same period last year. Comparable store sales for…

High-end Audio Predictions for 1998

Who wouldn't want to know what's in store for the extreme audio devotee? So we rolled a special set of aluminum Tiptoes, read the auspicious signs (you've got to understand how the tips point), and divined our first set of predictions. We'll have more next week, if the Mpingo dots line up just right.

1) DVD-Audio standard will finally be set---but major record labels won't care.
Of course, the corollary to this one is that the audiophile labels will carve out a hefty niche for themselves, with some limited re-releases from the majors. Expect to see yet another "revelatory" remastering…