SunnComm says that this arrangement is the prelude to a more formal agreement, which includes the commitment by SunnComm for the immediate deployment of MediaCloQ technologies in the Sonopress plant located in…
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Maybe it's because those Yanks are so contentious, but it appears that most of the initial CD copy-protection activity is taking place in Europe (see previous). Last week, Phoenix, AZ–based SunnComm announced that it has reached an agreement in principle with Sonopress of Germany for implementation of its MediaCloQ technology in manufacturing facilities located all over Europe.
The surging popularity of portable music players has been a boon to makers of accessories for them, especially earphones. Many music fans travel for business, requiring long hours in noisy airplanes and other forms of mass transit, and earphones that offer the added benefit of blocking or reducing noise are always desirable.
But of the many models on the market, which are the best? A research project sponsored by Shure, Inc. found that the company's own E3c earphones were most effective at blocking outside noise. Employing industry standard techniques for evaluating hearing protection…
Widely known for its consumer electronics products and musical instruments, Yamaha actually got its start making pianos 100 years ago. To celebrate this milestone, as well as the 300th anniversary of the piano, the company is introducing its first CD player-equipped, "high-tech" player piano that, it claims, is capable of "singing" along with its piano performance.
The company's Disklavier line, first introduced in 1988 and now a $100 million/year retail business (12% of the total US piano market), is considered a high-tech update of the player piano made popular in the early 1900s.…
Next to join the online ATRAC parade, Warner Music Group announced last week that it has agreed to license the ATRAC3 audio compression technology from Sony, for use in the electronic distribution of music. Warner says it expects to launch its electronic distribution business during the second half of 2000, using ATRAC3 on a non-exclusive basis.
With ATRAC3, Warner says that it plans to make music available on the Internet that can be downloaded to PCs, then copied onto and played on ATRAC3-compatible devices that are also compliant with the guidelines developed by the Secure Digital Music…
It's been 30 years since hordes of wild-eyed music lovers converged on White Lake, a small town just north of New York City, for an event that would soon become an icon for a generation. Could anyone back then have imagined that, three decades later, Woodstock would cost $150/ticket and evolve into a marketing opportunity and website?
Metropolitan Entertainment, which is producing Woodstock 99 (set to take place in Rome, NY, by the way), has just announced its webcast partnerships with AMP3.com, Gotcha, and Mediabay. The company says that the official site for the Woodstock 99 festival,…
We were saddened to learn of the passing of Richard "Dick" Powers on April 5, 2006, in Fremont, CA after a short battle with cancer. Dick was just 53.
UltraAnalog, the company Dick founded in 1988 with Rémy Fourré to bring to market the high-oversampling 20-bit A/D converter designed in the late 1980s by Robert Adams, was a major player in the high-end digital audio arena, with Accuphase, Audio Research, PS Audio, Sonic Frontiers, and Madrigal/Mark Levinson using its 20-bit and later 24-bit D/A modules with considerable sonic success. The company also developed the low-jitter I2S-Enhanced…
Things seemed to be going well for SACD at the 112th AES Convention, held May 10-13 in Munich. The official news, announced at a Sony-Philips press conference, was that one million consumer SACD players have been sold so far. One large Dutch audio retailer even reported to me that they now sold more SACD players than CD players. The prognosis for SACD is total worldwide sales of 6 million players (in whatever form) in 2003 and 13 million in 2004.
As for making the discs, Sony has three pressing plants (in Japan, the US, and Europe), but as yet no facility for making hybrid SACD/CD discs…
John Atkinson points out that "a much-touted benefit of DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD is that these new media can store digital audio data extending one or more octaves higher in frequency response than the capabilities of the CD." But is this a difference that makes a difference? Atkinson examines the mounting pile of data in What's Going On Up There? Is there recorded life above 20k? The answer may surprise you.
Jonathan Scull writes, "I wasn't raised a McIntosh lad. My dad used Fisher, Bogen, Leak, and Ampex tubed electronics. So while I knew that many audiophiles hold tubed McIntosh…
Paul Bolin revisits planet Halcro to review the company's dm10 preamplifier. As PB notes, "After designing an amplifier that turned much of the audio world on its head, Halcro's head honcho, Bruce Candy, turned his attention to developing a preamplifier to match what he'd already wrought."
Next, Art Dudley takes a spin with the EAR 890 power amplifier and tries to conjure a tale about its sound. "The EAR 890 confounds reviewers: It's a straightforward thing, and while its design and execution are not without ingenuity, the EAR 890 lacks even such basics as hand-rolled capacitors or exotic…
In the December 2005 issue of the UK magazine Hi-Fi Plus, editor Roy Gregory announces that Absolute Multimedia, Inc., publisher of The Absolute Sound and The Perfect Vision magazines, has purchased the British audio journal.
Gregory states, "Hi-Fi Plus...will remain unchanged, unchanged that is apart from a few developments to content which we've been itching to make. ...With AMI's financial muscle behind us we'll finally be able to complete plans that have been in the pending tray for far too long. We'll also be able to make greater inroads into the US market and increase our UK…