Next, we go back a few years to the dawn of CD and bring you J. Gordon Holt's legendary review of the Sony CDP-101. JGH comments: "We all know that digital must have problems, right? Right. . . . What I can say is that the worst…
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Recognizing that high-end audio is anything but plug'n'play, Jonathan Scull examines the details of getting the best from alternating current in "Fines Tunes" #8. As Jonathan writes: "Bill Gates would have you believe we live in a plug'n'play world. Apple has proselytized same since day one. But I'm here to tell you it just isn't so for high-end audio."
It's a brave group of souls who run today's audiophile music labels. Sane business minds would likely deem it foolhardy to start a new specialty label these days, but sometimes one's passion for music overrides the rational impulse to try something a little bit more secure (like perhaps an Internet company?).
Such is the case with start-up Pure Audiophile, which is releasing its first LPs this month. The two-disc set is called Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane and features vocalist Karrin Allyson with James Williams on piano, John Patitucci on acoustic bass, Lewis Nash on drums, and Bob…
The US economy took a severe downturn last year following the terrorist attacks of September 11, and this year has been hit by the stock market's decline in the wake of the accounting scandal–fueled collapse of Enron and WorldCom, Inc. Electronics retailers have ridden out the slump fairly well, buoyed by a consumer trend toward "cocooning," or putting their disposable income into their homes. For most retailers, the popularity of DVD and home theater has offset diminishing sales of stand-alone audio.
But even with the continuing growth of DVD and digital video—on September 5, the…
San Francisco, California will open its Golden Gates to welcome the Home Entertainment 2003 Show, June 5-8, 2003. The event will take place at the Westin-St. Francis Hotel in the heart of downtown San Francisco. HE2003 marks the fourth time this event has been held in San Francisco. Previous events were held in 1989, 1993, and in 1997.
Open to the public, the four-day Show will dedicate its first day, June 5, exclusively to members of the trade and press to allow exhibitors to meet one-on-one with retailers, distributors, and the media. The Show officially opens to the public on Friday…
Last week, Xing Technology Corporation announced its sponsorship of the First Annual MP3 Summit. In a statement, the company urged music-industry executives to discuss copyright issues, technical standards, and music distribution, and to participate in developing the future of MP3.
The MP3 Summit, organized by MP3.com, takes place on July 2, 1998 in San Diego. Participants are expected to include representatives from A&M, ASCAP, BMI, Geffen Records, RIAA, and others.
MPEG Layer 3, or MP3, is an audio compression standard that allows tracks from an audio CD to be compressed into…
Cirrus Logic Inc. has introduced two new high-performance analog-to-digital converters. The CS5361 and CS5351 are said to deliver professional sound quality for audio/video receivers (AVRs) and DVD recorders (DVD-Rs) at mainstream consumer prices. The new chips are OEM-priced at $4.95 and $3.95 respectively, in quantities of 10,000 or more.
The CS5361 and CS5351A/D converters are based on a proprietary multi-bit delta sigma architecture with advanced dynamic element matching, according to the announcement. The CS5361 offers the best analog performance (114dB dynamic range and -105dB THD…
If the rumors are true, Amazon, the giant Internet retailer of books, recordings, videos, and just about everything else, is about to embark upon a music subscription service—complete with Amazon-branded music players at a deep discount, or perhaps even for free.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon is in discussions with the major record labels, but that no deals have been negotiated yet. Amazon has not confirmed the details, but reports indicate that the program would resemble "post pay" cellular phone plans, where customers receive phones at deep discount in exchange for a…
The Music Online Competition Act (MOCA) has won the imprimatur of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), according to an announcement made August 8. The recently-introduced bipartisan bill crafted by Congressmen Chris Cannon (R-Utah) and Rick Boucher (D-Virginia) intends to insure competition in the delivery of online music—and to preserve music lovers' rights to copy their own recordings for private use.
The Cannon-Boucher bill would allow consumers to make their own backup copies of recordings they have legally purchased, as well as allow webcasters to make "ephemeral" copies of…
It has been another tough week for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as it continues to grapple with a waning CD market, and attempts to further rein in the forces of a brave new digital audio world. It didn't help that its website was heckled until it went offline, either.
In a repeat of last year's tumble, the RIAA started off the week announcing that music sales were down again in the first half of this year. The organization says that US CD sales decreased 7% during the first six months of 2002, representing a decline of $284 million in sales. The RIAA reported a…
Old-school two-channel hi-fi may be in the doldrums—a phenomenon of concern only to those manufacturers still solely mining that niche. Those who have caught the home-theater wave are working overtime developing and producing great-sounding new equipment for use with surround-sound systems, flat-panel televisions, and custom installation, according to reports from the CEDIA Expo held earlier this month in Indianapolis.
Among the companies demonstrating speakers intended to mate with flat-panel displays were Advent, Artison, Atlantic Technology, Boston Acoustics, Canton, Infinity, Klipsch,…