Myer-Emco successfully began to emphasize custom-installation services in the…
search
On May 8, Harvey Electronics, with 9 stores in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, announced that it would acquire the Myer-Emco chain's 10 stores in Washington and Maryland. Both companies are consistently ranked among the top "hybrid" retail operations, meaning they have retail locations and emphasize custom A/V installation services. The new company will be called Harvey Electronics, but tri-state area stores will continue to be called Harvey and DC area stores will continue to be identified as Myer-Emco.
Lexington, KY–based Thiel Audio has announced that it will partner with Charlottesville, VA–based Crutchfield to offer its speakers online and in Crutchfield brick-and-mortar outlets. Thiel has been famously reluctant to go online, having established itself through its canny vetting of potential retail partners. It kept its distribution clean.
Based on conversations I've had with Kathy Gornik and Jim Thiel, Thiel's worry was that too many Internet retailers sold based solely on price, offering little customer service or authority. Those are areas of Crutchfield's expertise—one competing…
On May 10, Tweeter Home Entertainment Group announced that it has insufficient working capital to cover its long- and short-term costs and may have to consider filing for Chapter 11. The immediate cause of the shortfall is the cost of closing 49 stores and two distribution centers. This Week in Consumer Electronics reported specifically that lump sum payments to lease-holding landlords was a contributory factor.
The chain currently has about $12 million in credit and is attempting to sell its 19% equity in Tivoli. The company has not announced a timetable for declaring bankruptcy,…
On May 16, Amazon.com announced that it would launch an online digital music store "later this year" offering "millions of songs in the DRM-free MP3 format from more than 12,000 record labels." EMI, which recently announced that it would partner with the iTunes Media Store to release premium DRM-free MP3 downloads there, "is the latest addition to the store." Amazon claims that every song and album in the Amazon.com digital music store will be available exclusively as unfettered MP3 files.
The customer advantage to DRM-unencumbered MP3 files is that they play on almost every personal…
On May 10, members of several pro audio Internet bulletin boards read the following post from Gary Margolis: "It is with great sadness that I inform you that John Eargle, one of the finest audio engineers and teachers it's been my privilege to know, has passed away.
"He was scheduled to speak to an Audio Engineering Society chapter in Minnesota on Tuesday evening, and when he failed to communicate with them, his JBL colleagues went to his home and found his body.
"John had a Masters in Music from Eastman and a Masters in Electrical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma. He…
It's not that we're jaded, but most mornings as we open the day's press releases, we manage to curb our enthusiasm as we read of the breakthroughs du jour. Yet, when we read that Steinway & Sons and Peter Lyngdorf had collaborated (as Steinway Lyngdorf) on a $150,000 "Steinway & Sons Model-D Music System," we knew we had to hear it.
Lyngdorf is well known to audiophiles, of course, for his work at NAD, Tact, and Millenium—he is obviously a man to be reckoned with. And Steinway must be fully committed to a system to name it after its D-model concert grands, considered by…
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has taken its first giant steps into the digital domain. Hard on the heels of launching the orchestra's new in-house CD label, CSO Resound, it has announced a partnership with digital distributor IODA that will make CSO Resound recordings available for download via iTunes, Yahoo! Music, Rhapsody, Napster, Verizon, Sprint, and other online retailers.
The CSO's outreach initiative follows similar initiatives from the San Francisco Symphony and other US orchestras but extends even further. Following a six-year hiatus, the orchestra has resumed its radio…
When we last heard from Linn, The Scotsman reported layoffs, restructuring, and a hoped-for resurgence. On May 25, we received a note from Ivor S. Tiefenbrun, Linn's founder, that he had returned to the positions of chairman and managing director, after an absence of four or five years due to serious health problems, thanks to new medications that have "returned [him] to fitness and restored energy levels."
Further, Mr. Tiefenbrun reported, he has appointed Steve Croft, formerly Linn's UK sales manager, to the position of director of sales. Thomas Saheicha, previous director of sales,…
On May 23, Sonos announced the release of Sonos Software v 2.2, which adds Pandora's personalized Internet radio service to Sonos' wireless multi-room music systems.
Pandora, which bills itself as "radio from the Music Genome Project," analyzes songs based on 400 musical attributes (such as melody, harmony, rhythm, form, composition, and lyrics—but not genre) and then creates a "radio station" consisting of other songs that the MGP suggests share attributes. Pandora is a fee-based Internet service, so Sonos' new linking capability includes a 30-day trial membership to introduce Sonos…
The Home Entertainment Show 2007 held May 11—13, 2007, at the Grand Hyatt New York Hotel in New York City, will be remembered by exhibitors, consumers, and visiting media as a well-attended showcase of some of the finest home-entertainment products available.
Over 10,000 audio and video enthusiasts and more than 450 members of the press from all over the globe attended the Show and had a chance to see, hear and try out more than 250 brands in over 100 demo rooms. In addition, showgoers were delighted by a variety of free musical performances from jazz and classical musicians, while…