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Blu-ray the Winner

Sony has triumphed once again. The company that has until now held control of the dominant audio format, "Red Book" CD, and the dominant high-resolution audio format, SACD, will now dominate high-resolution video as well with its Blu-ray technology.

On Tuesday February 19, Toshiba announced that it will no longer develop, manufacture, or market HD DVD players and recorders. "We concluded that a swift decision would be best," Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida told the press at Toshiba's company office in Tokyo.

Nishida ascribed Toshiba's abdication to Warner Bros. Entertainment's…

"Naim For Bentley" Shoots For World's Best In-Car Audio

Bentley Motors, the 89-year-old, Volkswagen-owned manufacturer of bespoke luxury automobiles has decided that a high-end audio system would complete its definition of automotive excellence, choosing Salisbury-based audio manufacturer Naim to develop a "Naim For Bentley" system.

Putting the money quote up front, Dr. Franz-Josef Paefgen, Bentley Motors' Chairman and CEO said, "Our customers expect the ultimate in every experience when they commission a Bentley. The 'Naim For Bentley' sound system delivers the world's ultimate in-car audio experience—allowing for 'as live' audio…

A Must-Have Rachmaninoff CD

It starts quietly enough, with a simple falling-fifth motif, but the first movement of Sergei Rachmaninoff's neglected Piano Sonata 1 develops into a work of epic proportions nearly 40 minutes in length, with haunting melodies, massive dynamic contrasts, and lush, sensual harmonies.

Back in 1990, when Stereophile first recorded Canadian pianist Robert Silverman, the repertoire was Brahms. But during the sessions I told Robert that someday I'd like to record him performing the two Rachmaninoff sonatas. "I've already recorded the first sonata," he said. "It was released as a Marquis LP in…

Judge to RIAA: Prove It!

The Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) aggressive campaign against its customers has most recently relied heavily upon the "making available" argument. The RIAA has argued that the act of making a recording available on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network was a crime, even if nobody actually linked to or downloaded the files. In October 2007, judge Michael J. Davis ruled in Capitol Records v. Thomas that the labels did not need to establish that the songs Ms. Thomas loaded to her KaZaa account were downloaded by others. Ms, Thomas was held liable for $220,000 in penalties.

Not…

Legal Downloads Up, CD Sales Down

The consumer and retail tracking NPD Group released the results of a study on how people acquired music in 2007. NPD's data show a marketplace undergoing transition—although, depending on who's parsing the numbers, that could be read either as great news or the end of the world as we know it.

NPD says that the "amount of music that consumers acquired in 2007" was up 10%, although it did not indicate if that figure reflected money spent on music, tracks, or complete recordings. The study said that legal music downloads increased by 10%, but that total CD sales declined by 10%—and since 10…

Giuseppe di Stefano, 1921–2008

How could he?, they seem to say. In obituary after obituary, one reads how tenor Guiseppe di Stefano squandered his voice. Too much smoking, too much drinking, too much shouting at late-night parties, they declare. It's almost as though opera lovers feel betrayed, unable to forgive an artist who abused such glorious gifts so early in his career.

Thank goodness, the recordings are here, in abundance. On them we find proof that, from the end of World War II through the mid-1950s, Giuseppe di Stefano was the finest native Italian operatic tenor to emerge since Beniamino Gigli (1890–1957). On…

Music Industry Rocked on Multiple Fronts

In January 2008, Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF) Senior Intellectual Property attorney, Fred von Lohmann filed an amicus brief in Atlantic v. Howell, a case that hinged on the Recording Industry of America Association's (RIAA) contention that offering files on a P2P sharing network was in and of itself evidence of copyright violations, whether or not it could prove the files were ever downloaded by others.

That argument is called "making available" and several Federal Judges and the Supreme Court have rejected it, although Judge Michael Davis did accept it in Capitol v. Thomas.…

Norman Smith: 1923–2008

Another of the great ones is gone. Norman Smith had been a refrigeration engineer, but at 36, he decided to apply for an entry-level position as a recording technician at EMI in the UK. EMI had a strict caste system at the time and technical staff (the "white coats") were considered a rank below that of producers and even of balance engineers, who were allowed to sit in the mastering room. By 1962, Smith was promoted to balance engineer and was paired with George Martin for the first Beatles recordings. As balance engineer, he chose the microphones and recording equipment for each session and…

Is It the Economy, Stupid?

We get letters department: Here at Stereophile, we talk to people in the high-end audio industry all the time, and we frequently get fascinating emails from movers and shakers within the industry. This week we received one that got us thinking about outsourcing manufacturing and how it could affect high-end consumers.

David Smith, a speaker designer who has put in time designing for JBL, KEF, Meridian, McIntosh, Snell, a/d/s, Infinity, and, most recently, PSB, wrote to tell us that he'd left PSB at the end of 2007. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say the job left him: Lenbrook-owned…

Beatles iTunes Reunion Near?

UK newspaper The Telegraph reported March 3 that Sir Paul McCartney has signed a $6 million deal to release the Beatles catalog to iTunes for downloading. While The Independent and the Daily Mail have also reported the same thing, there has been no confirmation from Apple, EMI, McCartney, surviving Beatle Ringo Starr, or the families of deceased members John Lennon or George Harrison.

Information Week has published that "some news outlets have reported that iTunes and representatives for the Beatles have denied the validity of the reports," without citing said reports.

Despite…