Members of the association are fighting to exempt orchestral music from a European Union directive that would institute strict limits on noise in the workplace. The EU hopes to impose an 83dB noise-level limitation throughout Europe—even if the workplace is a symphonic hall. A noise level that low would make it impossible to legally play most classical warhorse compositions, ABO director Libby MacNamara told BBC News Online: "It will…
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Should performing arts be limited by health or environmental concerns? The Association of British Orchestras thinks not, according to a recent BBC News item.
What a year. Stereophile.com ran hundreds of stories in 1998, covering events big and small in the intersecting realms of business, publishing, technology, and music---with some irresistible oddities thrown in here and there as journalistic spice. It's overwhelming to look back over Stereophile's first full year of online publishing and see exactly how much has happened. We've gone far, and sometimes wide, to bring you the news from an audiophile perspective.
From our admittedly self-referential point of view, the biggest event of the year was Petersen Publishing's purchase of…
The demise of Apogee Acousitics three years ago was one of high-end audio's biggest losses. The company's ribbon loudspeakers were among the best-sounding and best-looking high-fidelity products ever made. What remained of Apogee was picked up by a/d/s/, which at the time made a commitment to supply parts and service for the thousands of speakers in use, but that plan appears to have been abandoned shortly after it was announced. Apogee owners have since had to fend for themselves.
Last year, we ran a notice of a New York–based Apogee users' group, begun by a fellow named Matt Carnicelli…
Have the format wars begun in earnest? Only a few days after Warner Brothers announced the DVD-Audio release of Paul Simon's You're the One, Universal Music Group announced its plan to release titles in the Super Audio CD format.
Universal, one of the music industry's dominant players, has apparently decided the time is right to make a move into high-resolution audio, and will throw its considerable weight behind the format jointly developed by Sony and Philips. "UMG looks forward to providing consumers with a compelling musical experience. Super Audio CD provides extraordinary resolution…
Earlier this year, Kalman Rubinson spent some time with the Rotel RB 1080 power amplifier. "What could be easier to review than a power amplifier? No features or functions aside from inputs, outputs, and a power switch," remarks KR. But as Rubinson finds, it's the details that count.
Wes Phillips wanted to review the company's V-3 power amp, but found out he really needed to review the Ayre Acoustics K-1 preamplifier. Phillips provides the details. Also included this week is an interview WP conducted with the preamp's designer, Ayre Acoustics' Charlie Hansen.
J. Gordon Holt's…
Tweaks can rear their pointy little heads in the most unexpected of places, as Stereophile's inimitable Jonathan Scull discovered recently when he stubbed his toe. In Fine Tunes #33, J-10 reveals the floor screw tweak and many more.
Next, Scull indulges one of his audiophile fantasies and reviews the C.E.C. TL 0 CD transport. As J-10 writes, "One summer day, a large, heavy box arrived with the instrument contained within. Kathleen and I unpacked this minimalist and striking ode to contemporary Japanese design and engineering, and set it up." But was this a fantasy fulfilled?
As…
Linn's early decision to develop hard-disk audio systems first got our attention when the Kivor project was announced back at the 2000 Consumer Electronics Show. The Linn Kivor has now spent almost two years on the market, garnering a positive review from John Atkinson and a special "Editor's Choice" mention in this month's 2002 Products of the Year.
The Kivor concept is simple: create a computer-controlled hard-disk music server, conceptually similar to MP3 systems, but capable of storing and playing back uncompressed CD audio, and with the ability to serve as the music source in a multi-…
The 2006 edition of the Stereophile Buyer's Guide is out now. Listing the specifications of more than 5000 audio components within its 212 large-format pages, the Buyer's Guide is exclusively concerned with products for music reproduction, as opposed to the bangs, bonks, and battle noises typical of movie soundtracks.
In addition to the listings, Stereophile's editors and writers offer advice on how to get the best from LP playback systems, loudspeakers, amplifiers, and digital source components, while "Music in the Round" columnist Kalman Rubinson offers practical advice on setting up a…
Most audiophiles are generally loathe to think that they'd run their main audio systems from a computer. Last time we ran a poll, answers such as this one from David L. Wyatt, Jr. were typical: "Why in the world would I hook my computers to my stereo? If I want to make a compilation CD of the music I have purchased, I'll just burn one."
And yet, there were still quite a few readers who have made the leap and are exploring ways to get their computers to perform audiophile chores. Among the big draws for doing this is the ability to connect a system to the Internet for either music downloads…
For the millions of fans who search the Internet for their favorite music, one thing always required is the name of the artist or song sought. But what if you don't know exactly what you want to hear, and would rather search for the kind of music that suits your mood?
Last week, CantaMetrix announced the launch of its music search, recognition, classification, and recommendation engine. The company claims that the engine employs a proprietary computational approach to music retrieval that allows for purely sound-based searches, "which creates a more enjoyable and inherently personalized…