As Sam Tellig has often reported of late, integrated amplifiers have become hot high-end items. But from Mark Levinson (the company) . . . ? Can the venerable high-end firm's first integrated compare with its fabled separates? Larry Greenhill takes a close look at the Mark Levinson No.383 integrated amplifier and lets us…
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Kalman Rubinson had tried to get his hands on the Revel Performa F30 loudspeakers back in January 1999, but was thwarted until later in the year, when J-10 decided to send them his way. Kal was clearly excited about these speakers, and explains in detail exactly why.
In his The Fifth Element #2, John Marks discusses in detail how to use common household items to render some audiophile magic. Marks explains, Aall you need is a very long piece of string, a tape measure, two bits of masking tape, a quantity of small self-adhesive removable note papers, and later, perhaps, a trip to the fabric store."
Last week, we ran John Atkinson's As We See It about surround abuse. This week, we have Kalman Rubinson exploring Surround Sound & Cognitive Dissonance. Rubinson writes, "Listening to multichannel music with the new SACD and DVD-Audio players has…
The DVD Forum announced July 28 that it will start verification services for products based on the DVD-Audio format (see previous article) at some of its authorized DVD Format Verification Laboratories starting September 1999. According to the Forum, format verification is conducted to establish the conformity of DVD products with DVD formats created by the DVD Forum, and allows manufacturers of successfully tested products to use DVD logos as proof of conformity.
In addition to the existing formats of DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, and DVD-R, the DVD Forum says it will offer verification…
As big a shock as it was to see the Halloween candy and decorations in the stores by mid-September, the real sign that the year is drawing to an end has been the flurry of news concerning the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. This year, CES guarantees that it will refund the registration price of anyone who attends "any of the 2006 International CES conference sessions and fail[s] to gain even one new insight, tip, or piece of information you can use when returning to your place of business."
Registration for the 2006 trade show's conferences, scheduled for January 5–8, is…
For the entertainment industry, every perceived threat produces an overblown reaction. After a protracted and very public struggle, file-sharing upstart Napster was cowed into submission; MP3.com's "personal music library" was rendered ineffective through a combination of legal pressure and co-option; other Internet music experiments are threatened with lawsuits too costly to contest.
Sparing no expense in its struggle to maintain control of distribution, the industry's strategy is first to squash the competition---either by suing them out of business, buying them out, or withholding…
Johnny Ramone: 19548–2004: Rock fans were saddened by the September 16 death of guitarist Johnny Ramone, founding member of pioneering punk rock band The Ramones. Surrounded by friends and family, he passed away at his Los Angeles home after losing a five-year struggle with prostate cancer. His death came just a few days after a concert held to celebrate the band's 30th anniversary and to raise funds for cancer research.
Born John Cummings, Ramone was the second member of the group to succumb to cancer; Joey Ramone (Jeff Hyman) died in 2001 of lymphatic cancer. Bassist Dee Dee Ramone (…
The age of downloadable digital music is showing signs of maturing. Territory that was explored by hobbyists, pirates, and startup companies eager to stake their claims will soon yield to the irresistible force of multinational conglomerates.
On April 6, BMG Entertainment announced a sweeping plan to offer its enormous catalog of artists and performers over the Internet this summer "through an open network of retail partners." Bertelsmann Music Group, with more than 200 record labels under its umbrella, including RCA, Windham Hill, and Arista, has long operated one of the biggest and most…
Breaking news at the 2001 CEDIA Expo, held this past weekend in Indianapolis, IN, was that Harry Pearson, founder and editor of bimonthly high-end audio magazine The Absolute Sound, has apparently been moved to one side. According to TAS publisher Mark Fisher, with whom I spoke briefly Sunday morning on the Show floor, the day-to-day editing of the magazine will become the responsibility of erstwhile Stereophile consulting technical editor Robert Harley.
Harley is already editor of Absolute Multimedia's home-theater title The Perfect Vision, which is also published bimonthly, alternating…
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has requested increased federal funding for the ongoing struggle against the pirating of recorded music. On Tuesday, April 23, the organization's executives asked the US House of Representatives' Appropriations Committee for more money to pursue pirates. Such allocations come directly from tax revenues, according to reports from Washington.
Speaking to the committee's budget panel, Frank Creighton, an RIAA executive vice president and director of the organization's anti-piracy campaign, testified that although the music industry has…
From the August 2001 issue, we have Michael Fremer's illuminating review of the Audio Physic Avanti III loudspeaker. Fremer wonders how Audio Physic can top the outstanding price/performance success of its middle-of-the line Virgo model with a speaker that costs twice as much. As Fremer asks, "Is the Avanti twice as good as the Virgo? More than twice as good? Or is it just another competent but undistinguished design?"
While, in theory, a tonearm should not contribute any "sound" of its own, John Atkinson explains how just the opposite can be the case in his review of the Linn Ekos…