However, since Slim Devices outfitted the WiFi-connected Squeezebox with digital outputs, which allowed John Atkinson to feed uncompressed digital audio files into his Mark Levinson No.30.6 D/A converter, making him "strain to hear [the] difference" between his audio files and…
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Slim Devices, the company best known for the Squeezebox, has announced what it is billing as "the most advanced networked audio system available." At Stereophile, we hear this claim all the time, and it usually means that a computer peripheral company has added another USB port to a product aimed at the MP3 crowd.
Ultimate Ears, the headphone company that specializes in in-ear monitors such as the UE-5c, is developing a new model slated to join the super.fi family of products. During the prototyping period, the design crew referred to the new model as "XXX" (triple X).
Try doing a Google search on "XXX" and you'll discover the name would be a marketing nightmare for anyone not involved in the adult entertainment industry, which Ultimate Ears is not, despite its "stick it in your ear" philosophy. That's where their new contest comes in: UE is soliciting consumers to submit possible product names to…
Just as the mythical Phoenix arose from its own ashes, the birds of the Talon Audio line have again taken flight, this time as Talon Loudspeakers. As of August 7, Rives Audio (www.rivesaudio.com) has acquired Talon Audio and plans to reintroduce many of the company's most successful models.
Richard Rives Bird, who founded Rives Audio in April 2002, first encountered Talon Audio co-founder Mike Farnsworth at the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show. Rives had brought several of his Parametric Adaptive Room Compensation (PARC) units to the show, planning to demonstrate them in several rooms. (…
One of the great sopranos of the 20th century, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, died in her sleep at her home in Schruns, Austria, on August 3, at the age of 90. The myriad ways in which she employed her remarkably expressive, silvery soprano gave rise to as much admiration and respect as her penchant for incessant nuance, along with her Nazi past, generated controversy.
The rise of Schwarzkopf's international career has become synonymous with the ascendance of the long-playing record. In 1946, she was invited to audition for Walter Legge, founder of the Philharmonia Orchestra and the EMI producer…
No CDs for you, Tower: The Los Angeles Times reported August 4 that Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and EMI have cut off CD shipments to Tower Records because the record chain has stopped paying its bills. Sony BMG may have also stopped shipping to Tower, but the Times was not able to confirm those reports.
The Sacramento-based retailer has been struggling to stay afloat and had just named "crises management and bankruptcy specialist" Joseph D'Amico to its chief executive post a few days before the report. The retailer may have run out of money or, speculated some insiders, it…
Dean Roumanis, chief operating officer and part owner of Krell Industries, died Sunday, July 30, of a heart attack, one day after being taken to the hospital following chest pains he experienced after a long bicycle ride. He was 52.
Roumanis, an avid cyclist, had taken up long-distance biking in recent years to stay healthy. He rode "centuries," day rides of 100 miles, with Team in Training, an organization that rides to raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. His teammates have established a memorial page, including many photos of Roumanis engaged in his favorite activities…
The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will play host to the Technology & Innovation Emmy Awards for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) in January 2007. The awards ceremony will be the CES' opening event on January 8, 2007, and will kick off the show's 40th-anniversary celebration.
Other keynote events will include speeches by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, Motorola chairman Ed Zander, and the president and CEO of The Walt Disney Co., Robert Iger.
NATAS Technology & innovation Awards honor achievements in two areas: Science &…
Audia Flight: Musical Sounds will be distributing the Italian electronics manufacturer Audia Flight's line of components in North America. Audia Flight manufactures the CD One CD player, Flight 100 and Flight 50 power amplifiers, Flight ONE integrated amplifier, Flight PRE preamplifier, and Flight 3.100 multichannel amplifier. (North American prices TBA)
Audia's big departure from conventional component design is its utilization of current feedback rather than the more commonly used voltage feedback. This, the company claims, insures that the amplification "is of the transimpedance kind (…
On August 15, Klipsch Group, Inc. announced the acquisition of Canadian firm Audio Products International Corp. (API), one of the largest speaker manufacturers in the world. API, which makes loudspeakers under the Mirage, Energy, Spherez, Sound Dynamics, and Athena Technologies brands, was founded in 1973 and is sold in over 50 countries worldwide. Klipsch, which makes speakers under the Klipsch marque as well as Jamo, was founded in 1946 by legendary speaker designer Paul W. Klipsch and has become "the largest stand-alone speaker manufacturer in the US."
Fred Klipsch, the Klipsch Group's…
This is old news, but you may not have read it anywhere: Warner Classics no longer exists as an "active" label. Gramophone published a news item breaking the story on June 2 and Norman Lebrecht apparently analyzed and excoriated the move in his La Scena Musicale web log shortly thereafter. We say "apparently," since Lebrecht's site now reads www.scena.org is now expired.
Warner Classics consisted of several well-respected, formerly independent labels, including Erato, Teldec, Finlandia, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, and Apex (a UK-based budget label). Apparently Warner Classics operations will…