"Despite strong performances in the UK and much of continental Europe, the second-half outlook for turnover in recorded music is impacted by the…
search
Last year wasn't kind to UK entertainment conglomerate EMI Group PLC. On February 5, the company issued its second profit warning since September, blaming a slow market for recorded music. EMI is now predicting that pretax profits for the year ending March 31 will total $213.4 million (245.1 million euros, or £150 million), far below analysts' predictions. The news caused an immediate 6.4% drop in the price of EMI shares on the London market.
Editor's Note: Stephen Mejias has never attended CES before, and does not claim to be an audiophile. But he's distinquished himself enough around the Stereophile office that it seemed a good idea to register his first-time impressions of audio's greatest show on earth.
Latarria Hardy, our online accounts executive, taps me on the shoulder. "Are those mountains?" she asks. I lift the visor that's covering the window at seat 19A and look out, letting in a blast of sunlight from off of the plane's silver wing. "Too much light," I say. "I can't tell."
Locking in our trays,…
You want controversy? We got major controversy right here. In 1991, the Tice R-4 TPT and Coherence ElectroTec EP-C "Clocks" were released and then the fun started. Read everything Stereophile writers and readers had to say about these contentious products, as well as comments from the manufacturer.
Back in 1987, J. Gordon Holt got his hands on the $8000 Versa Dynamics 2.0 LP player, remarking, "That's more money than a lot of audiophiles have invested in records through the years. Total overkill! Or so it might seem."
Stereophile's erstwhile philosopher-in-residence George Reisch…
IPOs are jumping and the Nasdaq is up—some mid-summer economic indicators point toward a recovery, but you wouldn't know it from retail reports. Circuit City, Good Guys, and Harvey Electronics are singing the blues, while discounter Costco is whistling all the way to the bank.
In early July, San Francisco–based Good Guys reported an $8.4 million loss for its first fiscal quarter, ended May 31. The loss was almost twice the $4.6 million net loss reported for the same period last year. Good Guys' first quarter sales slid 14% to $143.4 million, a $171 million decline from the first quarter…
Last week Microsoft entered the Internet audio fray by announcing the release of their Windows Media Technologies 4 platform, which the company claims introduces a "new standard for CD-quality audio" on the Internet. Windows Media includes Windows Media Player, Windows Media Services, Windows Media Tools, and Windows Media Audio SDK.
Microsoft says that Windows Media Audio (WMA) files run at half the size of competing formats such as MP3, while maintaining "CD-quality sound"—a term largely criticized by audiophiles as misleading, since many feel the highly compressed files are not nearly…
Artists' groups are celebrating what they hope will be more than a symbolic victory over the recording industry in the wake of legislation signed by President Clinton the last week of October. Known as "The Works Made for Hire and Copyright Corrections Act," the repeal negates a provision that was inserted into last year's "Satellite Home Viewer Act" at the insistence of the Recording Industry Association of America, designating musical recordings as "works for hire." Such a designation catergorizes a musical recording as a commodity that can be purchased at a fixed price, such as a table…
One of the oldest names in American audio is venturing into new territory. Indianapolis, IN–based Klipsch Audio Technologies has acquired "selected assets" of privately held Mondial Designs Ltd. of Dobbs Ferry, NY, maker of the Acurus and Aragon brands of amplifiers, preamps, and signal processors. Paul Rosenberg, Mondial's co-founder and former vice president, will become a director at his new parent company, with primary responsibilities in marketing and product development for Acurus and Aragon. Mondial chief engineer Adam Gershon and senior engineer Michael Kusiak will also remain…
"No company has done more to vigorously fly the audio tricolor as has Focal-JMlab," declares Paul Bolin, who visits the Focal factory and then reviews the Focal-JMlab Nova Utopia Be loudspeaker. PB adds, "One thing about the Utopia line has not changed: the exquisite level of finish." But what about the sound?
Also from the June issue, Robert J. Reina writes about the $990/pair Jean-Marie Reynaud Twin Mk.III loudspeaker. RJR says, "Although relatively new to America, Jean-Marie Reynaud has been designing and manufacturing high-end speakers in France since 1967."
Next, Michael Fremer…
Stereophile readers with a hunger for licorice pizza may wish to turn their attention to the Phonogram mailing list---an online, noncommercial discussion forum for those interested in vinyl and related topics. According to Phonogram's material, "the group is an open, informative, interesting, and just plain fun place for people to share their enthusiasm for, knowledge of, and opinions on music on shiny black discs. Although the focus is primarily on 33 1/3rpm vinyl LPs, comments and questions on 45s, 78s, open-reel tapes, or other media (even CeeDees) are welcome. Discussion of hardware…
It had to happen eventually. Britain's internationally successful loudspeaker manufacturers tend to be highly geared exporters, with overseas markets often accounting for 80-90% of sales. The dramatic downturn in sales across virtually all Asian markets, alongside the collapse of the Russian ruble and an ever-strengthening pound sterling, has been making life very tough indeed.
Domestic UK sales were doing pretty well up until the end of the summer, but worldwide financial uncertainties seem to have sapped consumer confidence right across the UK retail sector, while from a specialist hi-…