At first blush, the deal seemed like a positive step for the small label, which had found itself struggling to stay above water in a troubled music business. New releases were announced, and key staff kept on the payroll. But despite promises of bigger things to come, Dorian quickly unraveled, taking Reference with it…
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The last couple of years have been a bumpy ride for Reference Recordings. The company's troubles began two years ago this week when it was announced that it had been acquired by The Dorian Group after more than 25 years as an independent label dedicated to audiophile sonics.
The final numbers aren't in yet, but all indications point to an astounding show of support from the audiophile community for the Audio Charity Auction conducted by Audio Asylum's Rod Morris and Audiogon's Arnie Chinta. The numbers are still stacking up, but as of Sunday, October 7, the benefit had raised $173,738 from over 400 closed auctions.
Morris says no more equipment donors are needed, and that there will be a few additional items listed over the next week until the final closing date of October 15. He points out that one of those items remaining is Ralph Karsten's Atma-Sphere M-60…
Beginning in November 1996, Sam Tellig, Muse Kastanovich, and John Atkinson took turns with the Musical Fidelity X-10D line-level preamplifier. "I'll reveal the true identity of X-10D in a moment," Tellig writes. "But I'll say straight off that for those of you with such CD players as the Marantz CD 63, RadioShack Optimus CD-3400, etc, this may be the most cost-effective CD upgrade ever to come down the pike."
Next, from October 1993, Jack English reviews the gorgeous Sonus Faber Electa Amator loudspeaker. Another case of audio beauty over brains? "The Amator's appearance has received at…
Controversy may sell magazines, but it can also cause all sorts of editorial and letter-writing ruckus. In "Where's the Real Magazine," John Atkinson follows the heated trail that began when he decided to put a PC soundcard on the cover of Stereophile back in September, followed by a Denon surround receiver (horrors!) that graced the December issue. Included as a bonus is the hot-off-the-presses March 2001 "As We See It" in response.
Getting back to the safer ground of high-end audio, we include Lonnie Brownell's recent review of the Monitor Audio Silver 9i loudspeaker from December 2000…
Wandering around the halls of the Heathrow Renaissance Hotel, I saw and heard a lot more affordable audio on display than I've seen at most American shows. This makes sense. After all, this is a consumer show (or it will be tomorrow---yesterday and today were trade days), and, while consumers want to fantasize about the state of the art, they also like to see kit they can actually own. Me too.
Acoustic Energy knocked me out with their £149.95/pair Aegis One loudspeaker, which employs a 25mm silk-dome tweeter and a 130mm aluminum-alloy cone woofer. These speakers sounded brawnily superb…
By their very nature, most audiophiles seem perpetually restless, never content with that last tweak. Following in that hallowed tradition, PS Audio has been trying to reinvent the technologies traditionally used in power-line conditioners to optimize those pulses of alternating current that juice our audio systems. The company made waves with the introduction of their Power Plant line of products last year (see previous report); their P300 garnered a very positive review from Stereophile's Robert Deutsch.
Now PSA is at it again, this time announcing the introduction of their Multiwave…
Only a few days remain until Christmas. Trees, tinsel, twinkling lights, and . . . tunes. It's the audiofool's most dreaded time of the year, when he once again suffers through his nine-thousandth experience of Bing Crosby crooning "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Sheer torture.
Every year recording artists crank out new Christmas albums, as required by law, and every year people buy them by the truckload. Many, of course, aren't worth the plastic they're pressed from. Here's a short list of some you may actually find enjoyable.
Top o' the chart: Christmas Time with The Judds…
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is trying to distance itself from an attempt earlier this month to insert language into a broad anti-terrorism bill that would have given the organization's members the right to hack into computers operated by Internet music sites—as well as those owned by private individuals—to find and delete pirated recordings. The wording suggested by the RIAA would have excluded copyright holders from criminal charges for causing damage to computers in the effort to control piracy.
Many civil libertarians had predicted that the copyright-obsessed…
With new high-end audio formats hitting the shelves and MP3 and Napster dominating the online music news, developments in the world of radio have taken a back seat lately. But two announcements this week offer a peek at where the broadcast business might be headed.
The development of a digital-radio system designed to broadcast "CD-quality" audio to motorists across the US will take a major step this month, when the first of three Sirius Radio satellites is launched (see previous story). The Sirius 1, built by Space Systems/Loral, will be placed in an inclined elliptical orbit with high…
Coaxing great performance from an orchestra requires that a conductor combine the talents of interpreter, psychologist, actor, coach, and drill instructor. It also requires a unique auditory ability: the capacity for simultaneously hearing the complete ensemble as well as all its individual performers.
Conductors—the good ones, that is—have long been known to possess a special talent for picking out sour notes from a sea of sweet ones. Is such an ability innate, or does it develop as one grows into the job? According to one recently published study, this capacity for "parallel processing…