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Added to the Archives This Week

Michael Fremer investigates the Parasound Halo JC 1 monoblock power amplifier, exclaiming, "The 5-to-1 ratio of cost to retail price suggests that the "raw" cost of the JC 1 is about $600—a number almost impossible to believe, given the superb build quality and sheer heft of this powerhouse monoblock." And then there is the sound.

John Atkinson points out that he's been glowingly reviewing KEF loudspeakers for years, and so looked forward to his time with the KEF Reference 207 loudspeaker. True to the breed, the latest effort from the Kent, UK manufacturer gave JA plenty to admire.

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US Music Shipments Drop Again

Recorded music as a packaged-goods commodity continues to decline, according to figures released March 4 by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Shipments to retailers from record labels in 2003 dropped 7.2% from the previous year's level, the trade group reported. A total of 798.4 million units in all formats (CD, DVD, cassette tape, and vinyl) were shipped in 2003, compared to 859.7 million units in 2002. The decline followed a 7.8% drop in 2002 from the previous year. On a dollar basis, shipments from record companies to retailers went down 4.3% in 2003 versus a 6.8%…

ContentGuard Wins Patent

A "digital rights management" (DRM) company has been awarded a patent for its "tickets" to Internet-based entertainment. Bethesda, MD–based ContentGuard Holdings, Inc. announced July 27 that it has been granted a patent for its "digital ticket" system, which allows users access to digital entertainment—music, video, graphics, and e-books—from any Internet-connected device.

ContentGuard's business model appears similar to the phone card model, where users buy a fixed number of minutes, which can be used from any telephone. ContentGuard codes can be embedded in users' computers, cell phones…

Added to the Archives This Week

As Larry Greenhill states in his review of the MartinLogan Prodigy loudspeaker, "Electrostatic speakers are my passion." But Greenhill's heard a lot of great 'stats in his time, so he was "both excited and uneasy" when a review pair of MartinLogan's latest arrived in his listening room. He needn't have worried.

His interest tweaked at the 1999 CE and Hi-Fi Shows, John Atkinson wanted a closer listen to the speaker Sony was using to promote SACD. Although the Sony ES SS-M9ED loudspeaker arrived at the Stereophile offices later that year, the review didn't make it to print until this month…

Liquid Assets Up for Grabs?

Times are tough in the online audio delivery market, with long-established start-ups struggling to keep pace with competing formats from Microsoft as well as the ever pervasive MP3. Particularly hard hit has been Liquid Audio, which along with competitor Real Audio, has for the last few years attempted to create the de facto standard for online music commerce.

Steel Partners II, which owns approximately 8.2% of the common shares of Liquid Audio and has been publicly critical of company management, made an offer October 22 to purchase the remainder of Liquid for $3 per share, or almost $68…

Independent Record Label Claims First DVD-Audio Release

Warner Music Group may have just announced its first DVD-Audio titles (see related story), but an upstart independent label is claiming the first DVD-A discs actually available for sale. In an attempt to establish itself as the leader in the new DVD-Audio format, 5.1 Entertainment Group's Silverline Records says it has begun shipping the first commercially available 24-bit/96kHz DVD-Audio disc, Swingin' for the Fences, by Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band.

The release, described by the label as a big-band swing/jazz recording, is said to have arrived for sale at traditional and online music…

Industry Roundup

Two-channel lives: Once the bread-and-butter of electronics retailers everywhere, the two-channel receiver has become all but extinct. Rotel America is making a valiant effort to save this endangered species with its new RX-1052, a remote-controllable 100Wpc unit claimed to offer "audiophile-grade sonics"—it includes a phono preamp, and a "massively overbuilt" power supply—with versatile four-area multiroom/multizone capabilities and basic video-switching features. Whole-house system integration is made easier via three IR links and 12V trigger outputs. An RS-232 interface connects to…

Hans Fantel: 1922–2006

It was announced this week that Hans Fantel, a founding editor of Stereo Review and long-time consumer electronics columnist at The New York Times, died in early May from injuries sustained in a automobile accident.

Mr. Fantel led a fascinating life. He spent his boyhood in Vienna and escaped to Czechoslovakia after his father, an opponent of German rearmament, was arrested. He then served in the Czech underground before moving to New York in 1941.

Mr. Fantel was a man of great culture. He wrote a book about the Strauss family, The Waltz Kings, as well as William Penn: Apostle of…

Apple + Universal?

A month after news of Apple Computer's start-up subscription music service, reports began circulating that the company was negotiating to buy Universal Music Group, the dominant player in the global music market. The rumored buyout, first reported April 10, was variously quoted at $5–6 billion. The discussions between Apple and UMG may have been blown out of proportion; by April 12 the New York Times was suggesting that Apple might invest in UMG, but was in no position to make an outright acquisition.

Apple has already licensed UMG's catalog of recordings for sale to users of its soon-to-…

iTubes For Your iPod

There's a basic rule that explains the audiophile's role in the audio food chain: The mass market accepts and then audiophiles perfect. Try to reverse that rule with something like, say, SACD or DVD-Audio, attempting to have sound quality drive mass-market adoption, and you get . . . the DualDisc.

With the obvious mass-market success of Apple's iPod portable, it would follow that smart audiophiles would want to make it better. One company taking that route is PsiberAudio, the brainchild of Andrew Conley.

PsiberAudio has just introduced its first two products aimed at the iPod tweaker…