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Shocking Audio News

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…

GetPlugged.com Joins E-commerce Stampede

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…

www.boycott-riaa.com?

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…

Added to the Archives This Week

"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…

Barnesandnoble.com Jumps into Online Music Fray

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…

Sony Co-Founder Akio Morita Dies at 78

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…

Sirius to Go

Sirius Satellite Radio may be positioned to make the next great leap forward. In mid-May, Kenwood and Audiovox announced the first transportable receivers, which will let Sirius listeners enjoy the service wherever they go—home, office, boat, beach, etc—not only in the comfort of their cars.

Kenwood's "Here2Anywhere" model KTC-H2A1 and Audiovox's "Satellite Radio Shuttle" (SRS), both described as "plug and play" devices, will arrive at dealers during the last week of May. The new receivers have a feature called S-Seek that notifies listeners "when their favorite songs are playing on any…

CD Recorders Getting Cheaper, More Plentiful

CD audio recorders are becoming affordable and more available. Philips' CDR880 (reviewed by Wes Phillips in the current issue of Stereophile) will be in dealers' showrooms soon at a suggested retail price of $649. Pioneer will also have an inexpensive recorder on the market---the PD-R555RW, which will reportedly sell for $599. These two---and others that will no doubt follow---are welcome relief from the four-figure machines that have dominated the recordable audio CD niche.

Recording enthusiasts on a budget shouldn't overlook offerings from the computer industry, where CD "burners," as…

John Lennon's Piano Goes on the Block in July

An Internet startup being organized by Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood and auctioneer Ted Owen will offer John Lennon's 30-year-old Steinway piano for auction some time in July. The piano is now on display in The Beatles Story museum in Liverpool and will remain there until October 9, which would have been Lennon's 60th birthday.

The wood-finished upright Steinway was built at the Hamburg factory and purchased by Lennon in 1970, and is the same instrument on which he composed his hit song "Imagine." It could bring as much as $1.6 million at auction, making it the most expensive item…

Downloads Get Respect

Dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, the music industry may finally be settling into an uneasy acceptance that its market and business model have changed. Only two months after the successful launch of Apple's iTunes Music Store, Billboard magazine announced that it would begin accounting for downloads in its weekly music rankings.

On July 2, the popular music journal began to include data from downloads in its Billboard music rankings. Based on sales information gathered by Nielsen SoundScan, Billboard's charts have long been the standard that measured the popularity of…