The 122-page book includes highlights and updated statistics, along with a look…
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The Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association's recently released U.S. Consumer Electronics Industry Today indicates a healthy glow on the cheeks of specialty audio. US exports of component audio products amounted to $2.12 billion in 1997, an increase of 12% over the previous year's total of $1.89 billion. 1997's total represents a 25% increase over 1995, when almost $1.7 billion in separate audio products went out of the country. The figures are compiled by CEMA from US Department of Commerce figures.
Canton, MA-based Tweeter Home Entertainment Group (NASDAQ: TWTR) has gone public. Last Thursday, July 16, the East Coast audio and video retailer launched an initial public stock offering of 2.71 million shares at an offering price of $17/share.
The IPO was followed by a post-offering of an additional 6.082 million shares. Actual opening price on day one was $20/share. The IPO didn't follow the spectacular trajectory of many recent IPOs, which tripled in value in a few hours after opening, only to close well below the offering price. Tweeter stock rose modestly to $21.12, sank to $17.75…
Laser turntable launch: Despite its having been available on a limited basis for several years (and having been written about in magazines like Stereophile since 1988), the ELP Corporation's laser turntable was officially introduced into the North American market on May 18.
The $15,000 laser turntable uses an optical pickup rather than a physical stylus to "read" the grooves of an LP. ELP's press release explains the technology like this: "The laser's precision allows you to pick up audio information that has never been touched or damaged by a needle. This virgin audio information is…
In "Working in the Front Line," Martin Colloms writes: "A committed audio equipment reviewer operates at the front line of audio subjectivity. How is it possible to do this successfully, when a similar task undertaken by an industrial laboratory or test house would take five times as long, cost ten times as much, and deliver a verdict of arguably poorer relevance?" How indeed . . . Colloms explains himself.
Although many of you thought you'd never live to see the day, John Atkinson reviews a desktop PC convergence product from a mass marketer of consumer electronics, and then puts its…
J. Gordon Holt and various other Stereophile writers are brought together to create the definitive review archive of the Audio Research SP9 preamplifier. The SP9 review was controversial in its day, and the complete review archives include manufacturer and reader comments.
Starting in 1994, Dick Olsher, Martin Colloms, Sam Tellig, and finally Thomas J. Norton detailed their impressions of the Cary Audio Design CAD-805 monoblock power amplifier. As Tellig noted in 1998, "It takes courage to buy an amp like the Cary CAD-805C—so retro in its technology and its look."
Back in 1985,…
John Atkinson and Arnis Balgalvis audition the Avalon Eclipse loudspeaker, whose quasi-anechoic TDS response prompted JA to exclaim, "Boy, that's flat!" But is flat where it's at? AB thought so: "The sound I heard was truly outstanding."
A different tag-team takes a listen to two generations of the PSB Stratus Gold loudspeaker. Both Thomas J. Norton and John Atkinson sit in the sweet spot and turn in their score cards. JA's notes, "Even without careful setup, it was obvious that something good was going on: the midrange was clean and uncolored, the stereo imaging well defined and stable…
In a move that some cynics are calling "the beginning of the end" for the Secure Digital Music Initiative, the group's director has abruptly resigned. Leonard Chiariglione, who has headed the cross-industry anti-piracy organization since its inception more than two years ago, made the announcement Wednesday, January 24 at the first SDMI meeting of 2001.
Formed after the music industry was blindsided by the rise of the MP3 file-sharing phenomenon, the SDMI has pushed hard for the development of watermarking technologies for high-resolution digital audio by establishing a research and…
Concord and Fantasy: Berkeley, CA–based Fantasy Records has been sold to Concord Records of Beverly Hills in a deal valued at $83 million, according to a December 4 report from Billboard. The music enterprise of film producer Saul Zaentz and partners, Fantasy is well known for its huge catalog of works by jazz greats Count Basie, John Coltrane, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Ella Fitzgerald, Thelonious Monk, Joe Pass, Oscar Peterson, and Sarah Vaughan, as well as soul and blues stars the Dramatics, Isaac Hayes, Albert King, the Staple Singers, and Johnnie Taylor.
Dave…
Tito Puente, the "Mambo King" who fused jazz with Latin rhythms, died Wednesday, May 31 at New York University's Medical Center from complications following heart surgery. Puente was 77.
Known to his fans as "El Rey" (The King), Puente recorded 119 albums in a career that spanned five decades. He fell ill in San Juan, where he was to perform with the Puerto Rican Symphony the week before he died. On June 1, the day after his death, the Puerto Rican government declared three days of official mourning. "He put Puerto Rico's name in lights," said the island's US Congressional delegate,…
Received wisdom has it that putting all your eggs in one basket isn't a good business plan, but that's exactly what Roxio, Inc. intends to do with its Napster online music service.
On August 9, Santa Clara, CA–based Roxio announced the sale of its software division to Sonic Solutions of Novato, CA for $80 million. The deal will divest Roxio of its popular CD and DVD recording, authoring, and photo and video editing application products including Easy Media Creator, PhotoSuite, VideoWave, Easy DVD Copy, and Toast.
Terms of the transaction provide Roxio with $70 million in cash and…