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Added to the Archives This Week

Does the SLP in the Cary SLP-98P tube preamplifier's name stand for "sweet little preamplifier"? Art Dudley sets out to determine if Cary's latest version in the SLP preamp series lives up to the moniker.

Next, Jonathan Scull takes a turn with the Cary CAD-280SA V12 power amplifier, describing it as "a handsome amp, and smaller than its name might lead you to think. In fact, it's an interesting combination of the neat'n'petite and pure flamboyance."

To open his review of the Theta Digital Generation VIII D/A converter, Kal Rubinson notes, "We audiophiles are ever hopeful that, however…

New Audio Formats Said To Be Up

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is reporting that sales of DVD-Video players also capable of playing high-resolution audio formats have taken off this year, compared to 2002. According to CEA market research, manufacturers shipped 148,000 DVD-A and 100,000 SACD players to retailers through May of this year.

But format success may take time. If history is any judge, the CEA's Sean Wargo says, we could see the majority of consumers enjoying high-rez audio by the year 2015, "with an even more rapid acceptance of the new audio technologies across the next decade and really driving…

Viiv Is Coming

Using a personal computer as an audio component has certainly gained ground with gearheads in the last several years, and many new products, such as media servers, blur the line between a traditional component and a PC. At the same time, the general public is still resisting the idea of booting up their stereos or TVs.

The computer industry, however, would like to find a foothold in everyone's living room, and Intel has just announced a new set of media technologies and standards aimed at lending a hand: Viiv (sounds like "five" and I'll bet someone got at least $30k to come up with it).…

Singer Peggy Lee Dies at 81

Few music lovers who grew up in the 1950s and '60s could have failed to be influenced by torch singer Peggy Lee, who died of heart failure at her Bel Air home on Monday, January 21. Lee was 81 and had been in ill health for several years.

Like Dave Brubeck's "Take Five," her great classic recording of "Fever" was one of those spare, elegant tunes that formed the musical zeitgeist for a whole generation. They were songs that seemed to be everywhere in the sixties—utterly cool, with an adult sophistication we could only dream of acquiring. "Fever" was as incurable as malaria. Once you had…

Buy Some Cables and Aid Relief Efforts

Want to do some audiophile shopping and do some good for others? The Cable Company, along with several manufacturers and audiophile publications, have set up a program by which they offer to donate up to 10% of August purchases to CARE and the International Rescue Committee, these contributions to be used to assist the worldwide disaster-relief efforts of those humanitarian organizations.

According to the company, in the four previous "Summer Against Hunger" efforts they have, with the help of underwriting manufacturers, raised a total of over $50,000 in contributions. The Cable Company…

New Rio Player to Debut; Diamond Multimedia Acquired by S3, Inc.

The high-end audio industry may be in a slump, but the public's appetite for recorded music appears as voracious as ever. MP3, the hottest upstart in the digital audio market, got a big boost in late June when Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc. announced the next generation of its popular Rio digital music player, the Rio PMP 500, due to arrive in stores this fall.

At $269, the new PMP 500 offers several advantages over its predecessor, the PMP 300. The 500 can handle up to two hours of music in the MP3 format, or in several other formats, including Microsoft's Windows Media Audio. The…

Fair Use At Risk?

One of the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is that the US Copyright Office hold hearings every three years to ensure that the DMCA is operating properly. For one month prior to those hearings any interested party can submit comments calling for exceptions or revisions. The latest comment period began on January 4, 2006 and has resulted in some fascinating comments.

Among the most eye-opening was a joint reply filed by 14 content-providing trade groups, including the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and…

Judge to MP3.com: "Guilty as Charged"

The roller-coaster fortunes of MP3.com took a downturn April 28, when US district judge Jed S. Rakoff found in favor of the Recording Industry Association of America in its copyright-violation suit against Internet music site MP3.com. Investors in the once–high-flying startup immediately began unloading shares of the company's stock, which had dropped 40% by the end of the trading day.

Damages against MP3.com are still to be assessed, but could run as high as $150,000 for each instance of "willful infringement" of RIAA members' copyrighted works. The total could reach into the billions,…

Naxos abandons SACD?

After learning from John Sunier, publisher of Audiophile Audition, that Naxos, the largest classical label in the world, was expected to cease producing SACDs and DVD-As, I checked with their national publicist, Mark A. Berry. He in turn sought confirmation from Naxos' founder and chairman, Klaus Heymann.

"Naxos has a number of recordings already available in DVD-A and SACD formats," wrote Berry after conferring with his visionary chief. "Naxos continues to record all important orchestral and choral/orchestral productions in surround. While Naxos has no plans to release more recordings in…

Added to the Archives This Week:

You think we've got format problems these days? Take a peek back to 1963, when J. Gordon Holt ripped apart the then-new record technology from RCA in "Down with Dynagroove". Next, Wes Phillips writes an ode to his own Mr. Holland in "A Passion for Music".

Lewis Lipnick explains how musicians can get caught between a rock and a hard place at the recording session in "The Musician in the Middle". Find out the mistake that recording engineers often make with french horns!

Ever been tempted to start your own audio store? Barry Willis, who's seen it all, offers his sage advice in "…