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Sirius keeps climbing: If recent gains are any indication, Sirius Satellite Radio may reach its break-even number of subscribers. On May 11, the New York–based satellite radio service reported that it had achieved a subscribership of 400,000. The brand will get increased exposure this summer as Sirius receivers go on sale at Radio Shack and EchoStar "DISH Network" outlets. Sirius products from Audiovox, Clarion, Jenson, and Kenwood are already available at Wal-Mart stores and after-market car audio installers nationwide. Other manufacturers signing on with Sirius include Alpine, Blaupunkt,…
It's been no secret that leading British speaker brand Mission was up for sale—the situation had been spelled out last fall in the Annual Report of parent company NXT plc. NXT is busy pioneering its new flat-panel speaker technology, and shareholder interests were clearly not being well served by "carrying" for any length of time a box-speaker brand whose recent financial reports had been mostly in the red.
Mission has since moved back into profit, and a number of rumors about its likely future ownership circulated toward the end of 1999. On January 19, 2000 the situation was resolved…
Last week, Napster announced that it had reached a preliminary agreement with US songwriters and music publishers to settle a class action lawsuit currently pending in federal court in California. The beleaguered company says the agreement includes terms under which the songwriters and music publishers will license their music to Napster's new membership-based service.
The deal is now subject to the approval of District Court Chief Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, the plaintiffs in the class action, and the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) Board of Directors. Songwriters Jerry Leiber…
Beginning September 21, more than 50 music retailers will offer David Bowie's new album, hours . . ., as a digital download from their websites. Other companies have released promotional singles, but the event will be the first time an entire album has been offered by a record company over the Internet. The Internet release will run about two weeks, leading up to the October 5 debut of the album in stores. Bowie was one of the first major recording artists to venture onto the Internet, with his 1997 single, "Telling Lies."
EMI Group PLC has arranged the release through its Virgin…
Editor's Note: There is a large contingent of Stereophile readers who design and build their own equipment—the DIY (do it yourself) crowd. Hervé Delétraz from Switzerland has been e-mailing us photos and stories over the last year about his own ambitious DIY amplifier design, so we asked him if he'd be willing to share a chronicle of his progress, starting from the beginning. This is the first in a six-part series written by Mr. Delétraz.
In the Beginning
I have been a music-lover for more than 24 years now. In fact, I began as a sound-lover. In the '70s, the better the specs were,…
New York, NY—The Home Entertainment 2004 Show, scheduled to take place on November 4-7, 2004 at the Westin-St. Francis Hotel, has been cancelled due to the hotel labor issue in San Francisco.
Upon making the announcement, Adam Marder, President of PRIMEDIA's Home Technology & Photography Group, sponsors of the event said, "We have been monitoring the situation in San Francisco very closely and are disappointed that the hotel owners association and union workers have not been able to come to an agreement. The disruption of services would effect our exhibitors and show attendees and we…
When does cooperation become collusion? When does collusion become anti-competitive? Investigators at the US Justice Department have begun asking such questions in regard to plans by major music labels to make their wares available on the Internet.
Musicnet and pressplay (formerly called Duet), two emerging—and likely, dominant—players in the online music business, are undergoing federal scrutiny for potential violations of antitrust law. MusicNet is a joint venture involving AOL Time Warner Inc. (parent company of Warner Music Group), Bertelsmann AG (BMG Entertainment), EMI Group PLC,…
In the crush of new products and technologies scrambling for attention at every Consumer Electronics Show, some intriguing announcements can get buried in the noise and require a closer look than is afforded by a quick listen and chat in a demo room. One such technology on display at the 2002 CES was MaGIC, a new high-resolution audio connectivity standard.
MaGIC was developed by Gibson Labs, the technology division of the well-known Gibson Guitar company, and is intended to make high quality real-time audio networking possible for everything from the largest live venues and professional…
Long-time readers of Stereophile, with stacks of magazines stuffed in their closets, will be glad to hear that we are launching a Master Index of past articles and publishing it free of charge online.
Want to know what we reviewed in Stereophile over the last 41 years? The Master Index will simplify the job of thumbing through each issue. New readers can also use the Master Index to locate a past review and then arrange to purchase it in a back issue using our secure online ordering page.
The Index is linked from the left column under "Site Features" on every page of the website and…
"Does the modern audiophile want a sleek, compact, powerful, remote-controlled, microprocessor-driven, two-channel integrated amplifier?" Michael Fremer seeks the answer as he reviews the Perreaux R200i integrated amplifier. It may be small, but as MF finds, it also packs a punch.
Next, John Atkinson finds himself wanting to stroke the polished grain-streaked sides of the Earthworks Sigma 6.2 loudspeaker. But looks are only half the story, as JA explains.
Also from the June issue, we have Kalman Rubinson firing up the Audes Jazz loudspeaker, asking "What might one expect of an…