The Cable Company's Robert Stein explains: "We dedicate our August each year to doing something to help the…
search
Once again, audiophiles can help themselves and others at the same time by participating in The Cable Company's ninth annual "Summer Against Hunger" campaign. The Cable Company and a wide cross-section of its vendors (listed below) have set up a program by which up to 10% of The Cable Company's August sales are donated to CARE and the International Rescue Committee, with contributions to be used to assist the worldwide disaster relief efforts of those humanitarian organizations.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of new products are unveiled to the consumer electronics industry each year at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But there would be no new products without the efforts of the scientists, engineers, journalists, inventors, company founders, and retailers who bring a product from concept to market.
To honor those leaders who have made significant contributions to the consumer electronics industry, and to build on the inaugural class of 2000 (see previous report), the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) welcomed seven new inductees into its…
Audiophiles aren't taking to the streets just yet, but John Atkinson is more than a little riled about the proposed watermarking of SACD and DVD-Audio recordings. In this month's "As We See It," "Watermarking: the Devil's Work!," JA exhorts the audiophile masses to rise up in protest.
Michael Fremer readily admits that, no, he can't afford it either, but how could he resist reviewing the $74,000 Rockport Technologies System III Sirius turntable and tonearm? "Although I was mightily impressed with the System III Sirius's design and superlative build quality, I didn't begin listening in a…
For his review of the Nagra VPA monoblock power amplifier, Jonathan Scull lived a life of danger, noting that readers should "Respect the VPA as the hot-running, high-voltage device it is and It Will Provide. Cold-nosed pets and curious little fingers have no business around these Swiss Guards of quality sound engineering."
Back in March of 1998, Thomas Norton reviewed the Kinergetics KBA-280 power amplifier, pointing out that "in 1990, Dick Olsher reviewed one of Kinergetics' early power amplifiers, the KBA-75. The KBA-280 is a modern update of that design, still specified for class-A…
The numbers are looking better for MP3.com, the music-archiving site under attack by the Recording Industries Association of America and its allies. Despite the legal pressure, MP3.com has seen its revenues surge as the popularity of downloadable music continues to grow. On April 20, the San Diego–based company reported that its revenue increased to $17.5 million for the first quarter of 2000 compared to $666,000 for the same period a year earlier. MP3.com now has 10 million registered users, according to CEO Michael Robertson.
Despite the growth, the company still reported a loss of $18…
In a statement that may have far-reaching ramifications for the online digital music-distribution business, last week Sonic Solutions and Sony announced at the Audio Engineering Society Convention (AES) in Paris that they would collaborate to integrate Sony's ATRAC3 (Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding 3) into iMaster, Sonic's suite of tools for the preparation of compressed audio for Internet distribution.
Sonic says it will build Sony's ATRAC3 encoder directly into the iMaster toolkit running on the SonicStudio HD workstation, giving mastering engineers the ability to produce Electronic…
One by one, the name brands of audio are confronting the difficult issue of whether or not to take their products online. Recent brands to join the club include Roksan, Chord Electronics, Harman/Kardon, and PS Audio. Now it's time to add one of audio's deeply rooted loudspeaker marques, Celestion, to the list.
Last week, Celestion America and Hifi.com, sister company to Cambridge SoundWorks (itself founded by Henry Kloss of KLH fame), announced an exclusive agreement whereby Hifi.com will be the "first and only e-tailer of Celestion products."
While some have characterized online…
First up is Stereophile's 2000 Products of the Year. This is an important resource for readers, and Stereophile editor John Atkinson has once again decided to post this oft-requested article in our online archives in the same month the original appears in the paper edition.
Next we've got Michael Fremer's review of the Infinity Prelude MTS loudspeaker. MF writes: "The brand seemed to founder for a while as Infinity's speakers didn't catch fire with the core audiophile market. Then someone made the decision to carefully rebuild the Infinity franchise as a premier line of innovative…
John Atkinson and Stephen Mejias tally the writer and editor votes to present "The 2002 Products of the Year." As JA comments, "For more than a decade now, Stereophile has recognized components that have proved capable of giving musical pleasure beyond the formal review period."
Next, Larry Greenhill says it came as a surprise when he learned that the Bryston 14B-SST power amplifier was a bridged-output design. But after some careful listening, LG explains why "bridged amplifiers can sing."
"Aristotle, what a guy," is how John Marks begins "The Fifth Element #13" from November. As…
The National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) has released its Annual Survey Results for the 1998 business year, indicating that gross dollar volume for all music products grew by 10%, to $9.69 billion, with the CD market (83.3%, or $8.1 billion) continuing to build on its dominance. The report reveals that DVD sales "literally exploded in 1998," up a staggering 400% to $259 million.
A total of 32 member companies representing 3745 total stores are included in the survey, with 1660 of those stores in malls and the remaing 2085 in strip or freestanding locations. The average…