Matsushita will delay its new players for about six months while it attempts to come up with a more robust encryption technology. JVC did not specify how long it would wait to bring its new players to…
search
Audiophiles eager to try DVD-Audio will have to wait just a bit longer. Matsushita Industrial Electric Co. and Japan Victor Company have decided to hold back their new DVD-A players, in the wake of the widely publicized decryption of the format's copy-protection scheme by a Norwegian computer hacker. The hacker published his workaround of the encryption on the Internet late in November.
Bits is bits? In the December 1990 issue, John Atkinson explored in "Jitter, Bits, & Sound Quality" why digital audio turns out to be a complicated process. He writes, "As my violin teacher used to say, 'The right note in the wrong place is the wrong note.'" And so it is with digital data, as JA explains in this groundbreaking report.
From August 1998, Martin Colloms reviews the Conrad-Johnson CAV50 integrated amplifier, prompting him to comment, "You turn the damned thing on—it takes no more than half an hour or so to warm up—sit back, and relax."
Jonathan Scull says he has "…
Toronto-based Lenbrook Group announced earlier this month that it had acquired NAD Electronics from AudioNord International, a Scandinavian organization that has owned the brand for most of this decade. The deal is expected to close next week, on May 3. Lenbrook will take over NAD's worldwide marketing and distributorship, but AudioNord will continue to market the brand in Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, and Scandinavia. Other joint marketing ventures will follow, according to Lenbrook's public relations agent.
"The close cooperation between Lenbrook and AudioNord International…
Depending on who you talk to, so far in the US, DualDisc has either been a success (according to the record labels) or a stumble (according to the press and manufacturers). Now Europe gets a chance to see what the fuss is all about.
During a press event at Dolby's London offices last week, 5.1 Entertainment Group's John Trickett announced the European launch of the CD/DVD hybrid, DualDisc. According to 5.1, that this announcement marks the first ever release of DualDisc outside of the United States.
The DualDisc was first tested in several US markets in February of 2004 and then…
It helps to know the technical basics when building the ultimate audio system. J. Gordon Holt, pointing out that "knowledge is power," would like to see thousands of knowledgeable audiophiles girdling the planet, and so has created an excellent primer on audio basics called A is for Ampere.
Also this week, we've added a piece detailing the struggle to get the test bench to replicate real-world experience: John Atkinson's explorations of the ins and outs of Real-Life Measurements, including the circuit diagram of the dummy loudspeaker featured in Stereophile amplifier reviews. Next, JA…
Want your kids to grow up smarter? Have them study music. Want to hold off the mental ravages of old age? Listen to music. Want to get high (legally), feel ecstatic, make your pain disappear? Music is the cure for what ails you.
These are some of the conclusions recently reached by researchers at Dartmouth College and at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Dartmouth music psychologist Petr Janata led a team of scientists who studied the neural activity of people listening to music and determined that music prompts greater interconnectivity between the brain's two hemispheres and between…
Bronfmans bid Vivendi adieu: On Wednesday, December 3, Edgar M. Bronfman and his son Edgar Bronfman, Jr. officially resigned from Vivendi Universal's board of directors. The move followed an announcement by Time Warner that it would accept a $2.6 billion offer for its Warner Music Group (WMG) from an investment group led by the younger Bronfman.
Vivendi is still the corporate parent of Universal Music Group (UMG). Edgar Bronfman, Jr.'s continued position there would have been perceived as a conflict of interest in pursuing his new interest in Warner Music. Both UMG and WMG are among the…
Only a month after being scrutinized by the Senate Commerce Committee, Clear Channel Communications may have to explain itself to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
On Friday, February 21, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee told members of the recording industry that he plans to launch an investigation into alleged "payola-like practices" by big radio groups that also own concert venues. Clear Channel, the nation's number one radio broadcaster with over 1200 stations, also owns Clear Channel Entertainment, the number one concert promoter. Some recording artists have said that the…
Widely assumed to be at death's door, streaming-audio site MP3.com may be on the rebound after reaching a preliminary agreement October 19 to license more than one million songs from the National Music Publishers' Association, Inc. (NMPA) and the organization's primary subsidiary, the Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA). Individual music publishers represented by the Fox Agency must approve the agreement before it can take effect.
San Diego–based MP3.com built a massive network of subscribers through a simple service that allowed them to upload tracks from favorite CDs onto central server…
Several rooms at the Alexis Park featured SACD front ends, but as we moved around the floor of the main LV Convention Center, we heard and saw a lot more about DVD-Audio than SACD. Denon showed their DVD-3300 DVD-A/V player, which began shipping a few months back for $1199. No new models were on the floor, but the Denon rep suggested that something new will be appearing later this year. Pioneer was promising a universal DVD-A/V/SACD/CD machine in the future, and Yamaha was also showing a new DVD-Audio machine, the DVDS1200, in their booth.
Panasonic had the most aggressive DVD-Audio…