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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…
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…
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…
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…
We'd been playing phone tag for a couple of weeks, but Paul McGowan was finally tethered to a handset as he explained to me a product from his "new" company, the reincarnation of PS Audio. "Everything you've ever wanted in a power conditioner---times 10---with none of the drawbacks!" McGowan could hardly contain himself while pitching his latest brainstorm. He certainly had an intriguing idea, but the path from founder of PS Audio back in the late '70s to Genesis Technologies and back again was nearly as interesting.
Several years ago McGowan sold his interest in PS Audio, then known for…
Last week, the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association (CEMA) announced its forecast that Internet sales of traditional consumer technologies to online households should reach at least $14 billion by 2002, representing 13% of total industry volume. CEMA also revealed that consumer research shows interest in buying consumer technologies online should grow by at least 135% in the next two years. The study found that the vast majority of online shoppers opt to consummate the purchase online instead of at a retail store because of price.
According to CEMA's Todd Thibodeaux, "Whether…
The process becomes the product: in an announcement tinged with shades of This Is Spinal Tap, the band LIVE says it will be recording its next album under the scrutiny of a live internet camera. The webcast, which began July 17, is available on LIVE's website 24 hours a day, offering fans and the simply curious an "unblinking" glimpse of the creation of their new album, from "start to finish."
To create the webcast, LIVE partnered with newly formed online music company Is Entertainment. The LIVE webcast brings a real-time camera into the studio, with the band and producer Jerry Harrison…
Can Jah Atkinson believe his ears? The PS Audio Power Plant P300 touched an audio nerve with JA, who interviewed the designer, Paul McGowan: High-End Survivor, for the May 2000 Stereophile. As a bonus, we include JA's follow-up to Robert Deutsch's review of the P300, also from the May issue.
In the continuation of our series of reviews of Thiel loudspeakers, Lonnie Brownell gives a listen to the smallest of the company's offerings, the Thiel CS.5 loudspeaker. Lonnie comments that "the CS.5 looks like a bigger Thiel that was left in the dryer too long." Does the CS.5's sound belie its…
Mom fights back: As we've previously reported, the recording industry hasn't shied away from pursuing individuals it suspects of illegal downloading from peer-to-peer networks through the RIAA's "John Doe" lawsuits, most of which have intimidated the recipients into making out-of-court settlements. This strategy has, on several occasions, made the organization look foolish—as it assuredly did when it served a deceased 83-year-old.
Now, according to the New York Journal News, several record companies are bringing suit against Patricia Santangelo in US District Court in White Plains,…
CD changers holding hundreds of discs at a time have found their place in a sizable percentage of consumer homes, and have proven especially useful in the custom installation market. Fans of these mega-changers love to drop their discs into one place, never having to crack open a CD case again. Drawbacks, however, include not being able to easily move the disc from home to car or portable, and the mechanical whirring and clanking the machines make as they slowly plow through the user's playlist.
Last week, Lydstrøm announced the official national launch of the SongBank SL CD Memory System…