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That Analog Hole—Again?

It's baaack!

On June 21, Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) chairman and CEO Dan Glickman testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee concerning Hollywood, Inc.'s favorite punching bag: "The Analog Hole: Can Congress Protect Copyright and Promote Innovation?"

The "analog hole" refers to content that has been protected by digital rights management (DRM). When broadcast as a digital signal, the DRM prevents copying; however, when the signal has been converted to analog, DRM is no longer active, which means it can be recorded, transported, or otherwise manipulated. "…

David Smith, 1951-2006

I was saddened to hear of the untimely death of David Smith, vice-president of audio engineering and R&D at Sony Music Studios in New York. David, who was 55, died Saturday June 17, at the home of his mother on Long Island.

I had been acquainted with David since he had given me a tour of Sony's Manhattan facility in the early 1990s. He had always been generous with his time, constructively critiquing my recordings, and giving me demonstrations of Sony's DSD technology.

David had a long association with the Audio Engineering Society's New York Section, having served on its…

A Visit To Sonos

"I don't get why some audiophiles still think that saving data using a lossless compression scheme like FLAC or Apple Lossless sounds any different than an uncompressed CD file," says Sonos founder and VP of Sales and Marketing Thomas S. Cullen between bites of white fish shish kebab. "It's just mathematics, and the results are sonically identical, but you save half the space on your hard drive."

Sonos VP Thomas Cullen does a demo.

We're taking a break for lunch, and Cullen is animated while he talks. In fact, he appears to be an animated blur the entire time we are with…

David Inman

After I decided to join Stereophile as its editor in the spring of 1986, I took a road trip through Europe. The ostensible reason for the trip was to attend a hi-fi show in Lucerne, Switzerland, but the reality was that, faced with the transatlantic dislocation, I wanted to touch base with places that had meant much to me over the preceding years. I took the train to Paris, where I spent a day taking what might have been my last look at the Impressionist paintings (then at the Jeu de Paume gallery, now at the Musée d'Orsay), then drove the rest of the way to Lucerne with KEF's then marketing…

Bob Stuart Talks About Active Loudspeakers

Bob Stuart, chairman and co-founder of Meridian, will deliver a lecture on active loudspeakers to the UK Section of the Audio Engineering Society in London on Tuesday, July 11. Although Bob has been a champion of active speakers for 30 years, he has, surprisingly, delivered only one previous paper on the subject, at the AES UK Conference earlier this year. In this lecture he will expand on that presentation and be able to discuss the topic more fully with the audience.

The lecture begins at 7pm in the Royal Academy of Engineering, Great Peter Street, Westminster. Entrance is free for…

Has the RIAA Changed Its Lawsuit Strategy?

In an article published on June 28 on the website Slyck.com, a popular site dedicated to news and activism surrounding P2P networks, writer Thomas Mennecke contends that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has retooled its "strategy of launching a continuous barrage of monthly lawsuits aimed at approximately 750 individuals," a policy that has resulted in more than 18,000 suits since it was instituted three years ago.

That doesn't mean the industry watchdog has given up on litigation, Mennecke claims. It simply means that the RIAA fears that the general public has become…

Lorraine Hunt Lieberson

We have lost a great artist. Mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, 52, who had previously triumphed over breast cancer, died at her home in Santa Fe on July 3. While The New York Times obituary did not specify the cause of death, other reports suggest she died from cancer, leading to speculation that the claims of back trouble and gall bladder inflammation that led to a string of cancellations in the past few years were related to a recurrence of the disease.

Raised in the Bay Area by musician parents, Lorraine Hunt originally studied and performed as a violist. When, at the age of 26,…

21st Century Vinyl

A highlight of recent Home Entertainment Shows has been the Sunday afternoon "Analog Clinic" presented by Stereophile senior editor Michael Fremer. Michael, who writes about vinyl playback every month in his "Analog Corner" column, spends an hour showing Show attendees how to set up a turntable and how to optimize the tonearm geometry. To judge by the attendance at Home Entertainment 2006, held last month in Los Angeles, this is a popular subject these days.

It seemed a no-brainer, then, for Michael to produce a DVD covering the subject in even greater depth. 21st Century Vinyl is the…

Flowerburger Records Petitions Parliament to Stop P2P Lawsuits

In a gesture that mirrors a petition the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) is presenting to Congress, Flowerburger Records is circulating a petition requesting that the British Parliament and the BPI, Britain's recording industry trade group, stop the lawsuits against music fans and develop constructive alternatives aimed at compensating artists.

"Fans generally want payment for musicians but cannot always afford to buy CDs or downloads and will therefore naturally use P2P file-sharing and other downloading methods to listen to music," the petition states. "The music industry is a…

Paul Nelson Dead at 69

We have just learned that Paul Nelson, an influential music writer and talent scout for Mercury Records, was found dead in his New York City apartment last week. The cause of death was not reported.

Nelson is perhaps best known for his 30-year stint at Rolling Stone, but he first raised eyebrows with his spirited defense of Bob Dylan's transformation into an electrified rocker, in a 1965 article in Sing Out!. Nelson also wrote for Circus, The Village Voice, and Musician. His writing was passionate and intelligent, and he made this writer realize that writing about—and thinking about—…