Cablevision, the New York-based telecommunications giant, had closed 26 Wiz stores last fall in an effort to stem losses in its retail division. Cablevision lost a whopping $500 million on The Wiz during the five…
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The Wiz may not be long for this world. On Monday, February 10, Cablevision Systems Corporation announced that it would sell or close its remaining 17 consumer electronics stores, all in the New York metro area, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The announcement came only a few days after Circuit City announced major cutbacks of its workforce and the elimination of sales commissions.
April 24: On Saturday, April 22, the audio forum Head-Fi staged its first national meet at the Adria Ramada Inn and Conference Center in Bayside, NY. The meet, organized by Aaron Kovics (Head-Fi tag: immtbiker), occupied over 3300 square feet of floor space, most of which was divided into manufacturers' display tables and forum members' demonstration areas. Yep, you read that right—unlike ordinary hi-fi shows, the Head-Fi meets are opportunities for the attendees to show off their systems, sample and compare professionally manufactured components, and demonstrate their DIY projects. In fact,…
Grokster, Ltd. plans to expand its Internet file-sharing services to include leveraging users' computers as sources for music streaming, according to news reports from Silicon Valley on Monday, November 15.
Grokster Radio will launch in late November in partnership with Mercora, Inc. of Sunnyvale, whose technology allows users to stream music from other computers on the Grokster network, but is claimed to block permanent downloads, thereby serving music fans searching for new music, as well as the recording industry that needs to sell it to them. As in the original Napster model, users can…
In a brief statement, The International Audio Group (IAG) announced on June 28 that it has purchased the Mission business from the Administrators of Symphonix. In a separate transaction, IAG reports that it has also purchased the Mission brandname from NXT.
According to Tim Harris, Managing Director of IAG UK, "The Mission product portfolio is exceptionally strong and selling well. However, the company has suffered severe, and well-documented, financing issues during the past 12 months. This new deal puts Mission on a very strong financial footing, allowing its many successful product…
Melville, NY–based manufacturer Joseph Audio announced September 1 that the company was "pleased to accept the 'Best Sound at Show' award as determined by the votes of attendees" at the Home Entertainment 2001 event held in May at the NY Hilton. "We're deeply grateful that so many at the show felt that our RM33si Signature at $7500/pair was worthy of such an honor," said company president Jeff Joseph.
Joseph Audio won 8.2% of the vote, with second place picking up 5.4%. That award went to a system consisting of components from Burmester Audiosysteme, Nordost, Vacuum Tube Logic, Wisdom…
Last week, Burr-Brown Corporation announced the PCM1737, a 24-bit, 192kHz-sampling delta-sigma digital-to-analog converter (DAC) that the company says is designed for consumer audio applications. According to a press release, Burr-Brown states that "the PCM1737's excellent price and performance is specifically targeted toward consumer audio applications such as DVD/CD players, A/V receivers, HDTV systems, and car audio applications."
Mike Centorino, audio product marketing manager at Burr-Brown, explains that "the PCM1737 is our first 192kHz delta-sigma audio DAC. The price/performance of…
Time does fly when you're having fun, and it's hard to believe that the Stereophile website is two years old—so it's time for a party and some presents!
First we unwrap Stereophile's 1999 Products of the Year. Not only is this an important resource for readers, but Stereophile editor John Atkinson decided to post this oft-requested article on our online archives in the same month the original appears in the paper edition.
And while we're releasing articles from the current issue, next is this month's "As We See It": "Dynamics & Dynamic Range." JA gets a little grumpy when he…
These are perilous times for the independent audio dealer. With customers being siphoned off by large megastores and, eventually, the Internet, success will favor the dealer with a few clever tricks up his or her sleeve. One of those tricks for dealers in Dallas, Texas is a new group formed by Stephen Slaughter of The Audio Consortium.
Slaughter describes the Lone Star group, called the Dallas Audio Association, as "a new concept in cooperation within the high-end audio industry. We will be providing public education on various audio topics, including how to listen, how to set up systems…
Is there really a benefit to those pointy feet you have? Jonathan Scull has been surfing the Internet for cone-footer tweaks and theories and reveals his latest haul of hot finds in Fine Tunes #32.
NHT released its flagship model 3.3 several years back to great acclaim. But at $4000/pair, the price and size of the speaker were a bit much for many audiophiles. As Tom Norton notes: "Enter the NHT 2.9 loudspeaker. It resembles the 3.3 to a remarkable degree, offers much of what the larger loudspeaker does, comes in a more manageable size, and costs a lot less money." Norton works hard to…
The musical road less traveled leads to places like New York's Downtown Music Gallery. If your taste in music lies somewhere outside the marketing-demographic bell curve, DTMG has tunes for you: live tunes, recorded tunes, strange tunes, bargain tunes. There's something for almost everyone at recently launched www.dtmgallery.com---from Classical to Klezmer to Progressive Jazz to World Music to Absolutely Uncategorizable.
Besides announcements of DTMG-sponsored live performances by an eclectic assortment of musicians, the site lists the catalogs of the Avant, Tzadik, DIW, Canterbury, and…