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Added to the Archives This Week

From the September 1992 issue, Corey Greenberg checks in with a review of the Dynaco Stereo 70 II power amplifier. According to CG, "Panor's Stereo 70 II reissue looks similar to a vintage Dyna, but contains several circuit additions claimed to improve the original design's performance."

Also from the same issue, CG writes up the Nobis Cantabile power amplifier, noting, "In addition to their $2200 Proteus preamp, Nobis has their own take on the classic Dyna Stereo 7, called the Cantabile (pronounced 'Canta-beel'), an old Wisconsin word for 'flowing with melody.'"

Next, Chip Stern…

Audio Networking Advances

One of the most significant trends in audio, witnessed at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, is the emergence of the music server market. Pioneer, Panasonic, Marantz, Meridian, Onkyo, Rotel, Philips, Linn, and others have emphasized audio products that can be networked with each other and the Internet, and are able to share content throughout a home. Pioneer even suggests that networks will not necessarily involve a PC, but instead consist of dedicated music-server-like components.

Onkyo's Integra division wants its customers to have it either way. In September of…

Amnesty Offer from RIAA?

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) may issue a general amnesty to the music fans who have amassed libraries of favorite tunes by downloading them over the Internet, according to information leaked to Billboard, the Hollywood Reporter, and other publications the first week of September.

The trade association also may be willing to forgive many of those who made the tunes available, provided they delete any ill-gotten music from their computers and promise not to engage in file sharing in the future. Anyone wishing to take advantage of the amnesty offer will be required to…

Sony Announces Double-Density CD

For technophiles, DVD is the current hot ticket. The compact disc is far from dead, however. The 20-year-old format has been given a new lease on life by Sony Corporation, which in early July announced the development of a new technique that will double the data-storage capacity of recordable CDs.

Intended for the computer market, Sony's new system employs a shorter track pitch and a minimal pit length to increase the capacity of the discs from 650MB (MegaBytes) to 1.3GB (GigaBytes). Although both varieties of disc use a standard 780nm (nanometer) wavelength laser, the numerical aperture…

24/192 and Beyond?

It's a sobering thought: it was the computer manufacturers and software developers, not the consumer electronics industry, who enabled the biggest audio format since the CD to become popular. The format, which hasn't done much to impress audiophiles, but has greatly enhanced the portability of music, is MP3 and CE manufacturers are only now trying to catch up with products that take advantage of its widespread use.

High-resolution audio is clearly having a tough time catching fire via the normal consumer electronics channels, so perhaps a boost from the computer industry might help in a…

Share a Tune, Go to Jail

Will the threat of lawsuits have any effect on the file-sharing phenomenon? The music industry hopes and prays that it will. As of July 19, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) had sought and obtained "at least 871 federal subpoenas against computer users . . . with 75 new subpoenas being approved each day," according to an Associated Press report.

Defendants include individuals known only by their screen names, some university and college network administrators, and Internet service providers such as Verizon Communications, Inc. and Comcast Cable Communications, Inc.…

Public Broadcasting Makes Major Investment in "New Media Age"

In an "increasingly complicated and competitive media environment," public broadcasting intends to be there. So declared the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on March 30, when it announced an almost $2 million investment in projects for National Public Radio and Public Interactive. CPB has long held the intellectual high ground in broadcasting, and its new investments are intended to continue that tradition. The goal of the program is to create "new content and services which will broaden the public square of ideas and civic discourse," according to a corporate press release.

"…

Cirrus Logic Delays Wireless A/V Chips

Wireless local audio/video networks and surround sound systems have long been one of the electronics industry's holy grails, given the fact that a major cost in installing home theaters or whole-house audio systems is the wiring. The market potential is so great that major chipmakers have invested enormous amounts of research in developing products that would enable easy placement of audio and video systems anywhere in a home without the need for dedicated wiring.

Cirrus Logic is one such company. Cirrus has promoted wireless protocols such as "Whitecap2" and "802.11e" as standards for…

Industry Roundup

Warner Music Group rebounds: WMG announced Thursday August 19 that it was near completion of a major corporate restructuring, a move expected to save as much as $250 million annually. WMG had originally projected savings of $60 million per year. Earlier this year, the company was acquired by an investment consortium led by Edgar Bronfman, Jr., scion of the Seagram family of Montreal and former chief of Universal Music.

Bronfman described the new WMG as a "lean and flexible music company." WMG has shed approximately 1000 jobs, including several top executive positions since being spun off…

Universal Music Group Will Go Online Soon

One of the music industry's "big five" will soon begin offering its wares as digital downloads. Seagram, Ltd. chief executive Edgar Bronfman, speaking on Friday, March 3 at the Jupiter Consumer Online forum in New York, said his Universal Music Group will start selling music online this spring.

Seagram's CEO sees the Internet as the panacea for anything that might ail the music industry—despite last year's record sales, only a tiny fraction of which took place over the Net. "We need to stop thinking about selling round things," Bronfman stated. "In the future, we'll be selling songs,…