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…
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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.
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…
While doing research for his analysis of the Totem Acoustic Forest loudspeaker, Larry Greenhill uncovered a legacy of great reviews for the company's previous products each ending with a final "but . . ." comment. But . . . does Greenhill discover any killer "buts" with the Forest? He explains in detail.
In his essay "Bits vs Atoms," George Reisch explains how the whole Napster-kindled debate about digital content distribution may, in the end, actually be good news for live music fans.
Next, more excellent reader insights are offered in Jonathan Scull's Fine Tunes #36 from the…
Like most of the record business, classical music is having a tough time finding a new audience in the digital download world. And in line with the recent moves by record labels to market popular music online, classical music fans in the UK will soon have another bona fide incentive for locating and legally purchasing works via the Internet.
Last week, UK Internet service providers Freeserve and Classical.com announced that they have signed a commercial agreement to provide a classical music subscription service on Freeserve's website. The new collaboration has been named Freeserve…
On August 25 and 26, John Atkinson and Wes Phillips were in Salina, Kansas. They were recording what will be Stereophile's first jazz album, at the deconsecrated downtown church Chad Kassem of Acoustic Sounds has transformed into Blue Heaven Studios. The band, led by acoustic bass guitarist Jerome Harris, featured alto saxophonist Marty Ehrlich, trombonist Art Baron, vibraphonist Steve Nelson, and percussionist Billy Drummond. Over the two days, the quintet recorded a striking set of original compositions by Harris, as well as a superb tribute to Duke Ellington in one of the great…