The DVD appears to be following the reverse path. The…
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Not long after the single-disc CD player was introduced, the multidisc changer followed, with products from companies like Sony and Pioneer. Shortly after the changer was introduced, it became the most popular version of the new hardware format. In the past eight years, changers have consistently outsold single-disc machines. The high-end market was characteristically slow to embrace changers, but companies like California Audio Labs have been successful in this category with products like the CL-10, a five-disc carousel changer.
Historically, audio has not received a lot of attention from the computer industry. That long tradition may be ending, judging by a couple of new technologies that debuted at COMDEX in mid-November. COMDEX is the year's biggest computer-industry bash, held in Las Vegas two months prior to the Consumer Electronics Show.
Of particular interest to audiophiles is a new type of digital audio amplification debuted by Apogee Technology. The company has developed a method for applying digital signals directly to output switching devices that drive loudspeakers, thereby eliminating most of the…
In his review of the Soliloquy 5.3 loudspeaker, Kalman Rubinson says that when he heard a pair, his first thoughts were, "Gotta get my hands on these!" After careful listening, did the speaker live up to Rubinson's first impressions? KR tells the whole story.
AC overkill or not? That's the question Robert Deutsch finally answers after investigating the PS Audio Ultimate Outlet AC conditioner. Deutsch wonders, "Would plugging audio equipment into the UO . . . result in a significant improvement over the sound I got with the equipment plugged directly into the wall sockets?"
From…
Sharp Electronics has come a long way from the household appliances and modest home entertainment products it has long been famous for. (The company's name derives from its first product, a retracting pencil.) Sharp is making a serious, prolonged push into upscale audio and video, as evidenced by the array of new models on display at a dealer and media conference held in late August at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines, a hotel/golf resort north of San Diego.
Approximately 25 journalists—Michael Fremer and I were the Stereophile contingent—were treated to an up-close-and-personal…
Audiophiles interested in experimenting with upconverting the digital data on their CDs to higher resolutions will find a recent announcement from the Netherlands of interest. Dutch company Eximius revealed last week a new product tagged "DVD+Audio Creator" for converting CDs to either upsampled PCM or compressed MP2 files.
The company notes that its DVD+Audio format should not be confused with the already launched (at least three times by my count) DVD-Audio format. Instead, DVD+Audio is said to be compliant with the DVD-Video specification and will play on all DVD players.
According…
"Don't be shy," Jon tells me.
Not knowing that he caught my bright green stare blazing trails around the world's largest television screens, through tangerine-colored plastic walls, and over hundreds of bobbing heads just to get at the long legs of the booth girls, I have no idea of what he's talking about. I give him a look that expresses my confusion; my face is an innocent, little question mark.
"I'm sure they're not doing anything tonight," he answers.
Funny guy, this Jon Iverson, is. And perceptive, too. While Jon certainly doesn't approve of the use of long legs…
Lars is dead.
The Swedish-born Lars Fredell, who once told me that he aimed to be "the world's greatest audiophile," and probably was, died of an apparent heart attack on Friday, June 28, shortly after leaving a plane at Westchester County Airport. Medical personnel were unable to revive him. Lars was 58.
The incident bears an uncanny resemblance to the sudden death of Harvey Rosenberg last year. Harvey, too, collapsed and died following a flight. Harvey was 59.
Lars was my close friend and listening pal for nearly 15 years. He showed up on my doorstep one sunny Saturday…
It's tough to know which CDs, SACDs, and DVD-Audio discs have been restricted through watermarks or other "copy protection" techniques. This has created a thriving underground community, with websites such as Fat Chuck's devoted to sussing out the corrupted audio products and posting notification to consumers.
But what would happen if all altered products, both software and hardware, were required to carry notification to consumers that the product they were buying had restrictions built in? Would music fans shun the restricted discs and players, or would they shrug their collective…
While the DVD Consortium's Working Group 4 (WG-4) is still working on the 0.9 specification for DVD-Audio, Sony and Philips have been silently carrying on work on their Super Audio CD, the consumer implementation of Sony's DSD. The Sony/Philips disc will have two layers, one carrying normal 44.1kHz, 16-bit CD information (and thus guaranteeing backwards compatibility with existing CD players), the other carrying eight channels in DSD format (two for high-quality stereo, six for surround), plus text and/or graphics.
The press were shown Super Audio CD at London's Abbey Road Studios in late…
From the April 2004 issue, a must-read for all audiophiles: Keith Howard does the SACD and DVD-Audio math for "New Media Metrics." Using a vast collection of informative graphs, KH explores hi-rez attributes and puzzlers. "In the case of SACD, why provide a potential bandwidth in excess of 1.4MHz, only to fill more than 95% of it with quantization noise?"
From August 1999, Robert J. Reina listens to the NAD 218 THX power amplifier and explains that he's "been impressed with the character and the consistency of the NAD sonic signature: a tuneful and dimensional sonic presentation with a…