"Digital Sound System 80 will bring PC users sound more like the audio quality they've come to expect from high-end home audio systems," stated an MS press release.…
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Software giant Microsoft Corporation has entered the audio market with a satellite-and-subwoofer speaker system for use with personal computers. The Digital Sound System 80 made its debut at this year's Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3), held May 28-30 in Atlanta's World Congress Center. The system was designed in conjunction with Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands, one of the world's largest electronics companies.
Day Four at AES. The crowds were somewhat thinner, but the convention floor was still buzzing, still incredibly busy right up to 4pm, the official break-down time. I spent a couple of hours strolling the floor with Vacuum Tube Valley's Eric Barbour, who works another side of the thermionic street as an application engineer for Svetlana, the Portola Valley, CA-based importer of Russian-made tubes. Svetlana will soon be making the ubiquitous 12AX7 and other popular tubes in its St. Petersburg factory, he told me. Instability in Russia has hindered production recently, but Eric said all…
News last week about SafeAudio CD copy protection indicates that while fighting pirates, the major record labels are also attempting to seal off the ability of users to place their own music from CDs onto computers. If they succeed, the only alternative for consumers who want non-pirated music on their desktops will be to buy content directly from the labels themselves, or companies set up to legally supply digital audio.
But is there a viable business model out there that would allow record companies to make money selling music over the Internet and keep their customers happy? There are…
On June 7, CDnow, the world's top online music retailer, announced that it had acquired superSonicBOOM, an Internet custom-compilation disc business. The acquisition gives CDnow the ability to offer its customers custom discs as well as catalog product, said Jason Olim, CDnow President and CEO.
"superSonicBOOM provides us with a talented management team and custom digital capabilities that will significantly expand the level of personalization in the CDnow shopping experience. We believe this technology empowers our customers to create unique products for gifts, as well as their own…
We all know that audiophile products are dangerous to the pocketbook, but one high-end audio manufacturer is notifying its customers that one of its subwoofers may be dangerous to the listener's health as well.
In cooperation with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Madrigal is voluntarily recalling approximately 1300 Revel Performa B15 subwoofers. According to the CPSC report, a screw inside the subwoofer can cause a high-voltage short, which in turn could cause a severe injury to consumers through an electric shock.
So far, Madrigal says that it has received one…
Westlake Village, California-based KnowledgeLINK has announced a mid-September debut for GetPlugged.com, its e-commerce website. KnowledgeLINK says that the site, presently under construction, will offer a wide variety of mid- to high-end home entertainment products, and "in-depth guidance" for consumers interested in buying them. The company also states that its site's network of affiliated dealers and custom installers will work with customers to ensure that they get the best use of their purchases.
GetPlugged.com is one of many Internet startups attempting to combine information and…
The recent struggle between the RIAA and Napster may seem like a distant battle rumbling off in some foreign realm, far removed from most audiophiles: about once a week we get e-mails asking why a high-end audio website should even cover such stuff.
But to ignore the issues being settled in the lo-rez world would be a mistake. The major labels may be drawing battle lines around crummy, compressed MP3s right now, but in the not-too-distant mega-bandwidth future (okay, maybe middle-to-far-distant future), even audiophile-grade downloads will be affected by what is decided today.
And so…
"It costs as much as a car—and not a used jalopy, either," remarks Michael Fremer. "That's what goes through your head as you contemplate this magnificent $20,190 piece of audio jewelry." The jewelry in question is the Jadis RC JP80 MC Mk.II preamplifier, which MF compliments for "breathtaking" workmanship and parts quality. He also listens to the thing and reveals what some might consider the most important part: how it sounds.
From the May 2004 issue, Art Dudley reviews the ZYX R-1000 Airy S phono cartridge. AD notes, "This is the first product I've reviewed that contains cryogenically…
One would think that the Internet was growing crowded with online music retailers such as CDnow/N2K, Amazon.com, EveryCD, and Tower Records, just to name a few, all hustling CDs. But the lure of gold in them e-commerce hills is hard to resist. Last week, barnesandnoble.com jumped into the fray and announced the launch of its own Music Store, featuring what the company describes as the first "online classical music superstore." Notably late to market with its online bookselling franchise, barnesandnoble.com hopes to gain ground against arch-rival Amazon.com by expanding beyond books and…
Nearly six years after suffering a debilitating stroke, Sony Corporation co-founder Akio Morita has died. One of the world's most charismatic business executives, Morita succumbed to pneumonia on Sunday, October 3, in Tokyo. He was 78.
The embodiment of the "new Japan," the tireless Morita nurtured a small startup electronics firm into the world's most widely recognized brand name. With only $500 in seed capital loaned by his father, Morita and his partner, Masaru Ibuka, set up shop in a war-ravaged Tokyo department store, making and selling kits to turn AM radios into shortwave…