We have our own reservations about download services—as audiophiles, we are, of course, concerned about the lossy compression schemes that dominate the mainstream providers. Yet, we reckon that most consumers know they are sacrificing bandwidth…
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The Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) maintains a website that we have found invaluable for keeping up with news about technological restrictions to information and fair use. Last week, we were directed to the EFF's new User's Guide to DRM in Online Music, which we recommend to everyone still undecided about buying into one of the online providers.
Slap echo got you in a flutter? Jonathan Scull writes, in "Fine Tunes" #27, that "last month I delved into avoiding reflective, parallel-wall slap echoes from ruining your audiophile day. But I've since learned of a perfectly useful workaround that's much less costly and involved than horsing around the Sheetrock." George Cardas lends a hand.
Kalman Rubinson loved the MSB Link DAC, which he reviewed back in January 1999. He now turns his ears to the Link's most recent incarnation, the MSB Link DAC III D/A converter. Kal lists the Link III's attractions: "user-installable enhancements,…
According to a recent report from Arbitron and Edison Media Research (EMR), approximately nine million consumers who have ever listened to Internet audio said they would be willing to pay a small fee to listen to the one audio channel they listen to most online.
The study, "Internet 8: Advertising vs Subscription—Which Streaming Model Will Win?" also reveals that 40% of "audio streamies" (the report's term for those who have listened to Internet audio) would be willing to pay a small fee for commercial-free content, high-quality audio, or content they can't find anywhere else.
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New companies are springing up all around the web to provide songs for custom CD compilations. (See previous articles 1, 2.) You go to the site, choose up to 70 minutes of music from their catalog, and the finished disc is mailed back to you in a couple of days for between 10 and 20 bucks. The challenge for these companies is to have an attractive catalog of artists and songs to choose from.
One such company, Musicmaker, has just announced the addition of several "New York Punk" bands to their stable of recording acts. Blondie, Chrissie Hynde, and The New York Dolls have been added to…
Red Rose Music is celebrating the launch of its Chicago store with a grand opening bash Thursday, September 26.
Over 18 months in development, the new store at 672 North Wells Street in downtown Chicago will offer luxury home-theater systems, custom-installed whole-house electronics, and Red Rose audio products in a lavish environment described by manager Joe Cavanagh as "part art gallery, part upscale home." Among the store's unusual features are a series of paintings commissioned from artist Barry Gross and an Astonia baby grand piano, upon which what Cavanagh called "real live humans"…
Former PolyGram Music Group president Roger Ames has been named to head the Warner Music Group, parent company Time Warner announced August 16. Warner's music division, formerly the top domestic money-earner, has been stagnant in the past few years. Still one of the top five music conglomerates, it now trails Seagram's Universal Music, Bertelsmann AG, and Sony Music in total business, but retains the #2 spot in total number of albums sold, according to the Wall Street Journal. Warner's foreign business is far weaker.
"Roger is one of the few executives who really understands the record…
Jimmy Martin, the self-styled "King of Bluegrass," died at a hospice near his home in Hermitage, TN on May 14. Martin had been diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2003, but the progress of the disease was slow, and the first of two hospice stays was cut short by an apparent recovery. Significantly, Martin never gave up his plans to perform at this year's Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, IN.
Born in rural Sneedville, TN in 1928, Jimmy Martin showed a talent for singing early in life, and as a child he and his brothers and friends used homemade instruments to imitate the sounds of…
It's been an up-and-down week for consumer-electronics companies, as revealed by recent earnings reports surfacing around the globe. First, the bad news: Sony reports that its profits fell 32% in the latest fiscal year, and cites the strong yen for depressing the value of the consumer-electronics and entertainment company's overseas earnings.
According to Sony, its earnings fell to $1.1 billion (¥121.84 billion) in the fiscal year ended March 31, from $1.6 billion (¥179.00 billion) the previous year. With the devaluation of the dollar figured in, Sony reports that, even though sales of…
Starbucks is taking its signature compilation CDs to the next level—the personal one.
In mid-March, the coffee franchise announced that it would begin a new service, letting customers create and purchase CDs culled from songs selected from digital music libraries in each coffee house. Established through a partnership with computer giant Hewlett-Packard, Starbucks' "Hear Music Café" debuts Tuesday, March 16 in Santa Monica. The company plans to expand the service over the next two years to 2500 other Starbucks outlets.
Hear Music Café's music library will contain 250,000 songs,…
Among loudspeaker designers, Franco Serblin enjoys an enviable reputation for beautiful creations and meticulous craftsmanship. Until recently, Sonus Faber's resident genius had confined himself to minimonitors with simple crossover networks, such as the Concerto, a Stereophile Class B Recommended Component.
All of Serblin's designs have been well received by the audiophile community. His first commercial venture into floorstanding speakers, the Concerto Grand Piano, a two-way-with-passive-radiator design, also won a Class B recommendation. Now he has graduated to a three-way, the Amati…