Most's lung cancer was mesothelioma, a virulent variety caused by inhaling asbestos dust. The Guardian Unlimited's Paul Foot speculates, "Most probably he came into contact with asbestos in recording studios soundproofed with vinyl tiles impregnated with asbestos." Despite prolonged efforts to remove asbestos from commercial and residential buildings, it is still widespread. Foot quotes a rising death rate through the 1990s for workers with prolonged…
search
The music world is mourning the passing of British record producer Mickie Most, who died of lung cancer in London on May 30. He was 64.
In his report on the MartinLogan Depth powered subwoofer, Larry Greenhill laments, "Reviewing subwoofers is a lonely job that brings no respect." But can the Depth upset one of LG's longstanding prejudices to earn his respect?
John Atkinson comments that he didn't need much persuading to audition the Lavry Engineering DA2002 D/A processor. JA brings out his favorite discs, compares the DA2002 to some of his favorite DACs, and renders his verdict.
Technological breakthroughs or cable flummery? Art Dudley wires up with the AudioQuest Cheetah interconnects & Mont Blanc speaker cables…
Monster Cable has begun shipping a new series of "SuperDiscs"—specially remastered, limited edition CD/DVD combinations and special release DVDs—designed to excite audio consumers about high-quality multichannel music possibilities.
There will be two types of SuperDiscs: single DVD-Video releases and CD/DVD-V packages. All of the DVD releases will include 96kHz/24-bit PCM stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, and DTS 96/24 5.1, and some will also offer alternate surround mixes, full-length music videos, interviews, concert footage, and set-up instructions.
The DVDs also feature uncompressed, in…
Echoing the sentiments of their American counterparts, German music industry executives are blaming the popularity of the CD burner for slumping music sales. "More music is probably being heard now than ever before," said German Recording Industry Association president Gerd Gebhardt, "but the music is not paid for, because copying has become so cheap and easy."
CD burners are now standard equipment on most new personal computers sold in Germany, a fact that Gebhardt and his colleagues blame for a 10% decline in sales of recorded music in the country last year. Figures released by the GRIA…
Stereovox has introduced a more affordable Studio series of cables to complement its extravagant Reference products. (John Marks raved about them here.) The new Studio HDSE (high-definition single-ended) interconnects are thin and flexible, but each cable is constructed from a single high-purity 0.008" thick copper tube, clad in a silver-plated copper woven shield, with pure tape-wrapped full-density PTFE Teflon dielectric and an FEP jacket. The Studio cables employ a new chrome-plated Xhadow™ Reference precision-machined RCA connector.
The HDSE's "microtube" construction gives the…
MP3 may be under constant attack by audiophiles, and by music-industry attorneys in the courts, but the format shows no indication of disappearing. Santa Clara, CA–based S3, maker of the Rio portable audio player, has reason to believe that MP3 has plenty of growth potential. The company is going after licensees for the Rio to make knockoffs, and has plans to produce Rio-type players for home and car audio this summer.
S3 will soon produce a Rio Receiver, a wireless device capable of accessing MP3 files stored on a user's hard drive anywhere in the home. The Rio Jukebox will be a…
Yamaha Electronics Corporation has introduced four new A/V digital home-theater receivers equipped with XM Satellite Radio capability (XM-Ready). The $649.95 RX-V757, $549.95 RX-V657, $449.95 RX-V557, and $349.95 RX-V457 will allow users to plug an XM Connect-and-Play home antenna into the Yamaha XM-Ready A/V receiver and activate the XM service to receive 150-plus digital radio channels—no other accessories or installation are required. Using XM's industry-leading chipset technology, as well as a new proprietary chip and signaling protocol, the XM Connect-and-Play home antenna is capable of…
Operating at the fringes of the audio world, binaural recordings have continued to maintain a hardcore group of advocates. Creating a convincing three-dimensional surround effect using only a two-channel source, binaural technology is especially impressive with headphones.
This past month, John Sunier, host of the excellent PBS radio program Audiophile Audition, has brought high-quality (for the internet, anyway) samples of binaural recordings to his website at www.binaural.com.
These files offer an opportunity for anyone with a set of headphones and a stereo soundcard to get a taste…
How much does it cost to license DVD-Audio patents to create players or discs? That information was revealed last week when the DVD6C Licensing Agency, which represents the founders of the DVD Forum (formerly called the DVD Consortium) in the area of patent licensing, announced that it expects to start global licensing of essential patents for DVD-Audio and recordable DVD products on or about January 1, 2003.
DVD6C—which currently represents AOL Time Warner, Hitachi, IBM, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, and Victor Company of Japan (JVC)—notes that licenses will cover both drives and media…
The word's largest Internet service provider has decided to forgo an MP3 search feature until it figures out how to distinguish legal recordings from illegal ones. America Online made the announcement August 11 after discovering that the feature, which it hoped would enhance its Winamp site, might encourage piracy of copyrighted recordings.
AOL had wanted to add a music-search function, but has postponed the project until a copyright-secure system can be developed. "Now that it's up, we see we don't have an efficient process for distinguishing between legal and illegal MP3s," said AOL…