The layoffs will affect about 120 employees worldwide, or about 9% of Cirrus Logic's total workforce,…
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Cirrus Logic has initiated cutbacks in its workforce and other cost-reduction moves that are expected to save as much as $12 million annually. The Austin, TX–based semiconductor company stated May 15 that the measures are part of a general restructuring of its business model, in which its magnetic storage chip business will be de-emphasized in favor of its semiconductor business. Cirrus is the parent company of Crystal Semiconductor, maker of many high-performance digital audio chips.
Last week, Asahi Kasei Microsystems Semiconductor (AKM), which supplies audio ICs for professional and consumer products, announced its line of Direct Stream Digital (DSD) Digital-to-Analog converters capable of supporting both Super Audio CD (SACD) Direct-Stream Bigital and 24-bit/192kHz LPCM DVD-Audio formats.
AKM says that the new chips include the AK4383, a two-channel DAC targeted towards high-end audiophile and professional applications, and the AK4357, which AKM says is the world's first six-channel DSD integrated circuit, targeted at multi-channel audio, including home theater and…
Recently, the Optical Storage Technology Association (OSTA) announced the release of a new CD compatibility specification called "MultiPlay" for the computer and consumer electronics industries. OSTA says that the new specification is intended to ensure that Compact Disc Recordable (CD-R) and Compact Disc ReWritable (CD-RW) discs created on personal computers can also be played in consumer CD and DVD players.
In a statement, OSTA says that "all CD and DVD players available to consumers clearly state that they are designed to play audio CDs, and consumers generally expect that, regardless…
Audiophiles know Linn as a high-end consumer electronics company, creator of such products as the legendary LP12 turntable, compact amps, preamps, and speakers, and the innovative Kivor hard-disk music server.
But Linn has also been involved with the professional audio market since 1972. It has created products and processes, including studio monitor loudspeakers, 12" tonearms, unique cutting lathe technology with automated continuous radius compensation, and the Rekursiv digital recording system.
Latest in that long list of pro audio progeny is the company's new 328A Professional…
The continuing recession is hitting Circuit City hard.
In early February, North America's second largest electronics retailer announced sweeping cutbacks of its workforce, including the dismissal of approximately 3900 commissioned salespeople and the shuttering of 10 repair centers. Circuit City's sales force will move to an hourly wage, a measure that CEO Alan McCollough said will save the company about $130 million in payroll costs this year. The savings will help offset an expected $40 million drop in earnings caused by severance pay and "other one-time charges."
Approximately 60…
Audio magazine has appeared to have been in difficulties of late, with falling circulation, advertising revenues, and issue size. The current editor-in-chief, Michael Riggs, has worked hard in the past few years to create a more appealing editorial product, since he replaced long-term editor Gene Pitts. However, an even bigger change is now taking place.
It was announced on March 4 by Hachette Filipacchi Magazines that Riggs is to be joined by Corey Greenberg in the new position of editor. Greenberg will assist Riggs (who remains editor-in-chief) in the planning of each issue's content…
Could American copyright law be applied outside US borders?
US District Judge Stephen Wilson believes it could. In Los Angeles, on Monday, November 25, Wilson entertained arguments by record companies and movie studios that they should be allowed to proceed with copyright-infringement suits against Sharman Networks, Ltd., the parent company of file-sharing service KaZaa. Sharman Networks is headquartered in Australia and incorporated in Vanuatu, an island in the Pacific Ocean.
Sharman Networks' attorney David Casselman told Wilson that "holding the online swapping company liable for…
In December, after months of conducting listening tests with audio professionals in the US, the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) choose a watermarking technology from Verance Corporation for DVD-Audio copyright protection. Test results had indicated that Verance's system was the least detectable of the contenders under consideration.
The tests were administered by Sony engineering vice president Malcolm Davidson, and conducted in studios in New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville using ABX switching of time-aligned high-quality playback equipment. (I participated in one of the…
John Wright was one of the most important figures on the British hi-fi scene since the mid-1960s. His natural modesty and reticence made it easy to underestimate a working life that encompassed an unusually wide range of different roles: from inventor to speaker engineer to reviewer to businessman.
Both of his parents were music teachers, and while John himself was an accomplished pianist and organist, he developed a similar passion for the gramophone, and the challenge of reproducing the recorded music repertoire to the highest possible standards. While he both trained and practiced as a…
DVD-Audio is getting a big push from Panasonic this season. A promotion running from November 7, 2000 until January 31, 2001 includes rebates on the purchase of new players and free discs from a wide assortment of performing artists.
Buyers of a Panasonic DVD-A7 player will receive a $75 mail-in rebate; those who purchased a Technics DVD-A10 DVD-Audio/Video player (reviewed in the November Stereophile by Jonathan Scull) will receive rebate coupons worth $100. Those who buy "DVD-Audio Ready" Technics receivers—models SA-DA8K, SA-DA8N or SA-DA10N—on the same date will get additional $50…