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Home Entertainment 2004—Day Two

Friday, the first public day of HE2004, was entirely different from the press-only day that preceded it. Friday, the audiophiles arrived and the excitement was palpable. Rooms filled with music lovers; halls thronged with excited gear-heads. Now that's entertainment.

And with press conferences out of the way, we could finally get own to the business of listening to some of the systems set up for public consumption.

THEMUSIC.com was showing a nifty little system built around reference 3A Royal Virtuosos ($4000/pair); Antique Sound Labs' AQ 1009 stereo triode power amp ($5995),…

First DVD-Audio Single to be Released Soon

The worldÆs first DVD-Audio single will soon be out from the rock group Full on the Mouth. "People Mover" is a track from the groupÆs forthcoming album, Collide. "We felt a 5.1 surround-sound mix would be a great medium to showcase the capabilities and technology of DVD and the electronic elements of Full on the Mouth,'' said Charlie Lico, chief executive officer of the bandÆs label, Pioneer Music Group, which is a subsidiary of Pioneer Electronic Corporation.

Full on the Mouth, the first act to be signed by Pioneer Music Group, has been together eight years. The band's debut album…

Australia's Halcro Has Some Explaining To Do

We always keep an ear out for new and interesting audio developments each time we attend the annual CES show in Las Vegas. This year, one company that garnered repeated buzz around the Alexis Park, and even at the main convention center was Australia's Halcro. As we reported from the show, Halcro builds gorgeous-looking power amplifers shaped in the form of an "H" that range in price from $10,000 for its dm 33 three-channel amplifer up to $30,000 for a pair of the dm 68 225W monoblocks.

What has raised the eyebrows of the audio community, however, is a bold claim, repeated on the company…

DVD Jon Strikes Again

Norway's one-stop hacking expert, Jon Lech Johansen, has now reverse-engineered the encryption coding in Windows Media Player that prevents .NSC files from being accessed by users of other platforms.Geek-to-nerd translation: An .NSC file carries information about a media stream, including the port name and file address of the stream server. When Media Player opens the file, it decodes this information and connects to the stream server the code specifies. Johansen doesn't believe there's a rational reason to encrypt this information since, upon opening the stream, the information is usually…

The (Really) <I>Ultimate</I> Audio System?

For lifelike audio presentation in your living room, what could be better than the real thing? When it comes to putting the sound of a piano in your home, nothing comes close to, well, a real piano. For more than a century, several companies have marketed player pianos, first using rolls of punched paper, and most recently sophisticated MIDI programs. But if a real piano represents the ultimate audio performance in your living room, who has the ultimate real piano?

Yamaha thinks they do, in the form of their new Disklavier Pro 2000, just now heading into dealer showrooms at a chart-…

The Straight Story

Loudspeaker designer and manufacturer Richard Vandersteen has heard enough: He is embarking on a crusade to right an egregious wrong he sees being perpetuated by the marketing scribes and salesfolk working in the consumer electronics business. Though he was miles away, at his company headquarters in Hanford, CA, his passion for spreading the audiophile word came through the telephone loud and clear.

"There is a common misconception today," Vandersteen states, "one that has been aided and abetted by a strong marketing effort from certain Hollywood firms, that the requirements for a home-…

Giving the RIAA the Finger

As a result of the RIAA's aggressive attempts at legislation and lawsuits, it is widely understood that government control is an integral component of the music industry's plans to limit the ways in which copyrighted music can be used. But how far will the industry go to control the technology used to play back your favorite tune?

How about fingerprinting every consumer as they push Play? Earlier this year, biometric security company Veritouch announced that it was working with Swedish design firm Thinking Materials to create a portable media player called the iVue. The iVue is no ordinary…

Freebies Fading as Napster Goes Commercial?

Money and legal pressure can make even the fiercest tiger change its stripes. Nearing the end of prolonged litigation with the music industry, Napster has begun to go commercial.

The brainchild of college student Shawn Fanning, Napster originated as a "peer-to-peer" audio file sharing system that let users upload and access music files on the hard drives of all connected users. Massive law suits by the music industry followed. In a case before the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, Napster's defense has been that it is an Internet service provider and therefore not liable for the behavior…

HE2005 Concerts Announced

The Home Entertainment Show, scheduled to take place in NYC April 28–May 1, is only weeks away! Throughout the Show, ticket holders can experience the finest consumer electronics and convergence products on the planet—PLUS enjoy a variety of live music performances by popular jazz, folk, rap, blues, and classical music recording artists.

A benefit concert sponsored by XM Satellite Radio will be held Friday, April 29 at 8pm, with a headline performance by improvisational jazz-funk ensemble Medeski Martin + Wood. Tickets to this special concert are available at www.mooreatix.com—proceeds to…

Internet Users Want Free Music, Survey Claims

Despite the almost daily news reports that some music company has found a way to make people pay for music over the Internet, the fact is that very few people have done so. Most people who are getting their music on the Net are getting it free and like it that way---regardless of the quality. A survey released June 9 and funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts---a long-term supporter of National Public Radio---appears to validate this common observation.

Called the Pew Internet Project, the study investigates the Internet’s effect on society. Part of the study published in April includes…