The Longmont, CO–based data storage specialist is now shipping what it calls the "first blue laser holographic media," which it claims is capable of storing 14 hours of high-definition video or 1500 hours of audio on a single disc. Developed with financial aid from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the Tapestry HDS5000 (presumably, "HDS" stands for "high density storage") is intended for use in what InPhase calls "holographic…
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Pure technology developments don't often have an audiophile angle, but a February 9 announcement from InPhase Technologies caught our attention.
Sony Music Entertainment and Bertelsmann Music Group could soon be one.
On November 6, in the first of what may be several such consolidations in the music industry, the two giants announced their intention to merge. Should the deal win regulatory approval, the combined entity would be managed by two former television executives, with Sony's Andrew Lack serving as chief executive officer and BMG's Rolf Schmidt-Holz serving as chairman of the board of directors. Lack joined Sony Music last year after a long stint as an executive with NBC television. In his few months at the helm, Lack…
Last week, Philips Electronics and Sony Corporation announced the completion of Version 1.0 of the Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD) format specification. According to a statement, the format specification will be released to licensees early this month to allow hardware manufacturers and software providers to begin preparing products for launch in the coming months.
"We are very pleased to be announcing version 1.0 of the Super Audio CD specification," said Wally Heijnemans, Director of standards R&D within Philips System Standards & Licensing. "Achieving this milestone allows…
American fans of Jadis products take note: Pierre Gabriel Acoustic recently announced that it has acquired exclusive distribution rights to Jadis Electronics in the USA. Jadis is based in Villedubert, France and manufactures tube-based audio electronics.
Based in Québec, Canada, Pierre Gabriel Acoustic was established in 1990 and has distributed both Jadis and Gryphon in Canada for several years. The company also manufactures and distributes its own line of high-end loudspeakers and silver-wire interconnects.
As a result of the new agreement, PGA says, it has recently relocated to…
Michael Fremer heard that the Alesis MasterLink ML-9600 Hard Disk/CD-R Recorder "can sound better than all but the absolute top-drawer analog," and, of course, had to investigate. Mikey 'splains why audiophiles should take note of a machine generally used as a mastering tool by the recording industry.
"I must admit, right from the outset, that I find reviewing electronic components harder than reviewing loudspeakers; the faults are less immediately obvious," says JA as he is about to take on the Mark Levinson No.26 preamplifier and No.20 monoblock power amplifier. JA reveals what, if any…
Ashland, OR cable maker, TARA Labs, was raided by a combined force of federal agents and local police, acting on a warrant issued after investigators found sufficient evidence that the company may have mislabeled some of its products as "Made in USA."
Long known through its advertising as the maker of "the cable that God uses," TARA Labs was unable to invoke divine intervention to prevent law enforcement officials from seizing more than $600,000 in inventory, along with computers and company records in a day-long action.
TARA may have violated US customs laws by labeling foreign-made…
Want to know how Michael Fremer is able to tie a story about his baffled plumber into an equipment review? Find out in his report on the Audio Physic Virgo loudspeaker. About the speakers, Mikey writes: "Clearly, the Virgos disappeared, leaving one of the most credible three-dimensional soundstages I've ever experienced in any of my listening rooms over the years."
Thomas J. Norton writes, "When Pioneer commissioned Allen Boothroyd, a British industrial designer best known for his work with Meridian Audio, to come up with a unique appearance for its new surround-sound speaker system, they…
For the 109th convention of the Audio Engineering Society, the main floor of the L.A. Convention Center was transformed into a bazaar of new tools for audio professionals—but the panel discussions upstairs were where the real action took place. On Friday, September 22—just an hour before researchers Dr. Stanley Lipshitz and John Vanderkooy of Ontario's University of Waterloo presented a paper offering a mathematical proof for the "imperfectability" of one-bit delta-sigma recording systems—Sony Corporation issued a clarification of the technical standards for its Direct Stream Digital…
Last week, Capitol Records announced that it will release expanded DVD and VHS editions of Endless Harmony: The Beach Boys Story. The documentary, produced by Stephanie Bennett and directed by Alan Boyd, made its US television debut on VH1 in 1998. A soundtrack CD of Endless Harmony, originally released to coincide with the VH1 airing, is also available.
But what may prove most interesting to Stereophile readers, especially in light of many of the comments from last week's Vote!, is that in addition to the typical DVD bonus materials, there will be several new 5.1 surround-sound mixes of…
In a landmark special feature, Chris Dunn & Malcolm Omar Hawksford thoroughly dissect the vicissitudes of the digital interface and jitter in Bits is Bits? The authors note, "The theoretical performance obtainable from the 16-bit linear PCM format sampled at 44.1kHz is superior to any analog sources available to the consumer."
From September 1992, the late Peter Mitchell proves remarkably prescient with "A Question of Bits." PM writes, "Someday we may speak wistfully to our grandchildren about the 'golden age' of digital audio when consumer formats contained a bitstream that was an…