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Album Cover Top 10

There are several easy ways to start arguments among music fans: ask for a list of the most significant albums of all time, or who the greatest songwriters are, or the best bands, or ask which albums sported the all-time greatest covers.

It's that last question Vinyl Record Day founder Gary Freiberg asked via the VRD website, with the cooperation of radio stations around the US. Once the tallies were in, the debate began, erupting even on audiophile message boards.

Freiberg says that he resisted the temptation of using a panel of "experts," preferring to go straight to the public for…

Audiophile Sales Booming Online: One Entrepreneur's Tale

The recent success of online retailers---especially when launching initial public offerings---has been phenomenal. In the past two years, Internet shopping has taken off in a big way, and shows no indication of slowing down. Technology trendwatcher Forrester Research predicts that worldwide Internet commerce will hit the $3.2 trillion mark within four years, accounting for 5% of all commerce.

Music lovers long ago discovered the offerings of mainstream online music sellers like CDnow and audiophile specialists like MusicDirect; the latter not only offers a deep catalog of ultra-high-…

Added to the Archives This Week

It's a Mac attack! First up is Jonathan Scull's take on the McIntosh MC1201 monoblock power amplifier. Festooning his listening loft with a pair of the "Great American Icons," J-10 is ready to rumble with "the biggest power meters you ever saw this side-a Milwaukee."

Sam Tellig also gets in on the Mac action with his review of the McIntosh MC2102 power amplifier. For those of you who missed your chance to get one of the limited run of 559 MC2000s (Stereophile's "Amplification Component of the Year" in 2000), Tellig reports that the company has designed "yet another new tube amp—a Son of…

Sirius Supports The Bottom Line

Sirius Satellite Radio is concerned about The Bottom Line. Not the company's profitability, but the venerable Greenwich Village music cabaret, which has suffered since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Since that fateful day, the club's business has fallen off to the point that it was facing eviction by its landlord, New York University. In September, Sirius stepped in with an offer to provide financial support to help the club continue operating. "Sirius has pledged funds to help the club with past obligations and future expenses," according to a…

April Music's US Distributor

April Music's high-end audio products should soon be available to music lovers throughout the US, thanks to a distribution agreement with Bertrand Audio Imports announced August 11.

To bring April Music's Stello and upcoming Eximus lines to American audiophiles, Nashua, NH–based Bertrand Audio Imports has signed on nine American specialty retailers: Audio Limits (Cannon County, CA), Pure Audio (Scotts Valley, CA), PKM Audio (Chino Hills, CA), Acoustic Image (Studio City, CA), High Notes (Raton, NC), Father and Son Audio (Nampa, ID), High-Rez Audio & Video (New York, NY), Quest for…

Vinyl Record Day 2003

Vinyl junkies again converged on San Luis Obispo, California on Saturday, August 16 for the second annual Vinyl Record Day celebration. Vinyl is clearly red hot among audiophiles and music collectors, and VRD organizer Gary Freiberg commented that momentum for the event continues to grow, with this year's turnout easily bigger than last year's.

Indeed, twice as many record vendors were on hand this year with used and new vinyl of every persuasion. Boxes of classical, jazz, and rock audiophile favorites were everywhere, and great deals were easy to find (your scribe picked up a mint…

Added to the Archives This Week

There's nothing like a new high-resolution format to get an audiophile's interest, and this year saw two major announcements. But with DVD-Audio stalling, attention is sure to focus on Sony and Philips' new SACD format. Jonathan Scull jumps right in with his review of the Sony SCD-1 Super Audio CD/CD player. As J-10 notes: "Rarely have I anticipated the arrival of a review component as I did the Sony SCD-1 Super Audio CD player." But does it live up to the hype?

We continue with the fourth installment of Scull's ever-popular system- and room-tweaking column, "Fine Tunes." J-10 reveals a…

Crystal Semiconductor Introduces 96kHz Digital Audio Transmitters and Receivers

The Crystal Semiconductor Products Division of Cirrus Logic Inc. announced last week the availability of the industry's first digital audio transmitters and receivers designed to support the emerging 96kHz digital audio sampling rate. The new mixed-signal receivers and transmitters are targeted at both the professional audio and consumer DVD audio markets.

The new chips support transmission of digital audio signals to industry-standard formats, specifically the Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format (S/PDIF) for consumer applications, and the Audio Engineering Society/European Broadcast…

Sony's Big Slide

An old adage has it that "when Sony sneezes, the whole electronics industry catches cold." If that's so, there could be an epidemic brewing. Sony's profits plunged an astounding 98% in the first quarter of its current fiscal year. Thomson, Samsung, and some large retailers also reported big drops.

In a report issued July 24, Sony Corporation attributed the huge decline during the April-to-June period to diminishing sales of its video games and TV sets, in addition to unprofitable theatrical releases from Sony Pictures Entertainment—specifically Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, which…

D&M Holdings Reports Losses

Grabbing a few big gulps can sometimes fill you up quickly, but it can also lead to a little indigestion. This proved to be the case for D&M Holdings, which filed results for the first half of its fiscal year, ending September 30, 2003, and its financial forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2004 with the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

D&M Holdings has been acquiring "premium" audio, video, and home networking brands over the last couple of years, and is the parent company to Denon, Marantz Japan, McIntosh Laboratory, and Digital Networks North America, which consists of the ReplayTV…