The Hovland Company is no more. Less than 10 full years after its incorporation, the manufacturer of highly coveted Hovland Musicap propylene-film and aluminum-foil capacitors and visually striking electronic components has dismissed its staff and closed the doors of its manufacturing facility and headquarters in Los Angeles.
Alex Crespi, vice-president of sales and marketing and one of Hovland's four original owners, confirmed by phone that Hovland Company was done in by a combination of low cash reserves and the extremely high cost of manufacturing its hand-built products.
"Our…
CEDIA Expo 2009 was off and running on Thursday September 10. The two large convention floors in Atlanta are packed with displays and products. The focus, of course, is on video, home theater, home integration and, even, centralized vacuum-cleaning systems. Of greatest interest to audiophiles remains the obvious: we all need loudspeakers! (Well, perhaps not the vacuum cleaner systems.) Unfortunately, the buzz on the floor precludes useful auditions and is so great that even the dedicated sound-rooms suffer from excessive noise. So, you will understand that good looks grab my attention…
Continuing from Day One's loudspeaker theme, there were several new speakers of some note to be seen and heard at the 2009 CEDIA Expo in Atlanta.
The bright yellow Fat Boy Mk.II globes ($799/pair), from the company that brought us the neat series of Fat Man tubed iPod docks and power amps, caught my gaze and would not release it. With its Kevlar-cone woofer and silk-dome tweeter, it comes standard in piano black but almost any color can be ordered up. I like this pair because they'd match my Meridian F80.
I first became acquainted with Berlin-based Adam Audio at…
Emerging technology was also a theme at this CEDIA, even apart from the various 3D video schemes. RoomEQ is, of course, not a new concept and Audyssey treated us to an introduction and demonstration of their new Subwoofer Equalizer that uses the AudysseyPro software and of DSX, their technology for adding additional channels (for width and height) to the standard 5.1 and 7.1 configurations. I have a Subwoofer Equalizer in house now and hope to report on it shortly. In addition, DSX has made its appearance in a new generation of preamp-processors (and AVRs) from Denon, Onkyo, and Integra, so…
To celebrate the release of jazz group Attention Screen's new Stereophile CD, Live at Otto's Shrunken Head, we are having a release party at New York's Otto's Shrunken Head Tiki Bar next Thursday from 7pm to 9pm. All are invited, admission is free, Attention Screen will be playing two sets, and the first 50 to arrive will get a free CD!
Otto's Shrunken Head is located at 538 E. 14th Street, Manhattan, between Avenues A and B.
If you've been to Otto's, you're probably wondering how 50 people will fit in the club—well, including both table seating and standing room there is plenty…
We have just received the sad news that loudspeaker designer Jim Thiel has passed away. Following is the text of the official announcement:
Jim Thiel co-founded THIEL Audio Products of Lexington, KY in 1976, and the company has grown to become one of the most respected manufacturers of loudspeakers in the world. Jim's passion for music and his interest in electronics can both be traced back to childhood, when he began a lifelong love affair with the piano and also began to build and repair radios and other electronic gear. His academic background in physics and mathematics along with his…
Wilma Cozart Fine died Monday September 21 at age 82. Together with her husband Bob Fine, Cozart was responsible for producing and engineering Mercury's superb-sounding series of "Living Presence" classical recordings in the 1950s and '60s.
Wilma Cozart Fine started her career as conductor Antal Dorati's personal secretary. She became vice president of Mercury Records in 1954. She came out of retirement in the 1990s to produce again, this time to satisfy the demand for CD re-issues of the Mercury Living Presence LPs.
Mercury's initial series releases, made a year or two before Ms…
The sixth annual Rocky Mountain Audio Fest is about to get underway at the end of this week. Scheduled to take place October 2–4, at the Denver Marriott Tech Center, the largest high-end audio show in the US that's open to the public will offer 150 exhibit rooms packed with products from 479 companies. Despite the economic slowdown, at least 3500 audiophiles, the same number as last year, are expected to attend.
This year's RMAF has some especially enticing features. One is a 1000-square-foot expandable trailer from Harman International, in which two listening rooms will feature an array…
The Burning Amp Festival is almost upon us. The day-long DIY (do-it-yourself) love fest, held within yards of the San Francisco Bay, attracts a good 150 DIYers from around the world who engage in the annual ritual of demming their homemade gear for other avid audio enthusiasts.
Scheduled for Sunday, October 18 at Sausalito's Presidio Yacht Club near the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge, the event has again been publicized on the over 100,000 member strong DIYAudio.com forum. The forum is international in scope—it began in Australia—meaning that Burning Amp is one of the few large-scale DIY…
The first chapter in the history of the LAST Factory, manufacturer of LAST Record Preservative for LPs, is coming to a close. After shepherding for 30 years the Livermore, California–based company he founded, LAST's president, Walter Davies, is retiring to devote his energies to still photography. With Jan and Ric Mancuso, of Trade Secrets Consulting, Davies is looking for a buyer to keep the company in operation.
Three LAST products—Record Preservative, StyLast Stylus Treatment, and their flagship Power Cleaner for LPs—have been listed in Stereophile's "Recommended Components" for many…
