Another hallmark of speaker design is the Uni-Q driver, put to use in the KEF Reference Series Model Four loudspeaker, reviewed by Thomas J. Norton in 1996. About the Uni-Q, Norton writes: "The advantages: a coherent radiator, free from…
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They've been around for years, under a variety of guises and from an evolving list of manufacturers and distributors. But the BBC LS3/5a loudspeakers still cling to their legendary status. We provide not only J. Gordon Holt's original 1977 review for Stereophile, but also follow-ups from 1984, 1989, and 1993. Read about the little speaker that could.
If you haven't seen much in the mainstream press about the new satellite radio services from XM and Sirius, both poised to launch before the end of the year, you soon will. First out of the chute with the big media bucks, XM Satellite Radio unveiled last week its national advertising campaign called "Radio to the Power of X."
XM says it plans to spend $100 million in a national advertising push and "multimedia effort" anchored by a television campaign featuring musicians BB King, David Bowie, and Snoop Dogg. XM is also targeting traditional radio, magazines, newspapers, direct mail,…
Primedia has announced The Connected Guide To The Digital Home, the first consumer magazine dedicated entirely to adopting and integrating audio, video, information, telecommunications, security, and other personal and home technologies. Formerly known as Audio Video Interiors (AVI), the standard-bearer for the home theater revolution, The Connected Guide To The Digital Home is being introduced as the natural evolution of AVI.
Bill Gloede, previously editor of Mediaweek and Cable World, will assume the role of "Connected's" editorial director. Gloede, a noted industry arbiter of media…
While the sudden popularity of MP3 files caught many audio and music industry players by surprise, the budding home media server market is being watched closely from its inception. As defined by In-Stat/MDR, media server products are either PC-based, using an operating system such as Microsoft's Media Center Edition OS, or consumer electronics devices, like advanced set-top boxes, that offer both broadband connectivity and hard-disk-drive–based storage.
And although the current number of home media server products in actual use is modest, new research from In-Stat projects that worldwide…
Are there differences between an American hi-fi show and the British variety? A few---the biggest is the extent to which all the real business takes place at the bar. This is true for the audio press (okay, not all that different from an American show), but it's true for manufacturers as well. After Show hours, the boozer is jammed with everybody in the business sharing a few pints, smoking, and talking shop. It's not unusual to see business rivals chatting amiably about the state of the industry---and even discussing distribution in some detail.
Yesterday evening I was doing some…
On day two of Revel's early-March press junket, Stereophile and Guide to Home Theater writers and editors were treated to a discussion and demonstration of some superb audio and video equipment at Kevin Voecks' spacious home in the San Fernando Valley. Voecks spoke at length about the extensive research his company has done on the perceived realism of reproduced sound, under the leadership of Dr. Floyd Toole.
One of the most persistent beliefs among audiophiles and speaker designers is that a loudspeaker's step response or square wave response has a significant effect on the perceived…
Investors have shown an inexplicable willingness to foot the bill for MP3.com's $53.4 million settlement with Universal Music Group. In the four days following the announcement of a settlement on Tuesday, November 13, the now fully legitimate Internet music site watched its stock surge to four times the value it had only a month before. Shares of MP3.com closed Friday, November 17 at $9.42 each, triple the per-share price on the morning of the announcement. The stock had sunk to a 52-week low of $2.50 per share on October 11.
The hysteria was fueled by the fact that MP3.com is now the…
One of the hottest audio technologies at the recent CES, as far as the general public was concerned, wasn't SACD, or DVD-Audio, or even new MP3 players. Seemingly coming out of nowhere, digital satellite radio jumped into the limelight by announcing its impending rollout this year. Two companies are poised to compete for the top spot, lining up car manufacturers and CE companies in a classic format battle that is sure to heat up by summer.
On the one hand, we have Sirius Satellite Radio, which is currently up and running with their first 100 channels of non-commercial programming…
We've all been hearing about digital television (DTV) for several months now, but a similar revolution is facing the radio industry around the world. As we reported last week, several companies and organizations have been piecing together systems to gradually replace the AM or FM stations you currently listen to (you do listen to the radio, don't you?) with digital equivalents over the next few years.
The Internet as a digital broadcast medium has also been garnering generous attention with its 1700 or so web-based stations or rebroadcasts of radio stations. But with the low bandwidth…
Telecommunications giant American Telephone and Telegraph announced March 16 that it too, now, has technology for digital music delivery. AT&T's system, called a2b music, is based on MPEG Advanced Audio Coding.
According to an AT&T press release, a2b music's audio compression technology delivers the "best-sounding music currently available through digital distribution." Highly rated by independent audio institutes including BBC Research, Canada's Communications Research Center, and NHK Science and Technical Research Labs, MPEG AAC was jointly developed by AT&T Labs, Dolby Labs…