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…
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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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
Sirius Radio has added an entertainment industry heavyweight to its board of directors.
On October 2, the satellite radio service announced that DVD pioneer Warren N. Lieberfarb had joined its board. Widely considered the "architect of the DVD," Lieberfarb is the former head of Warner Home Video, which he ran for two decades. He was intensely involved in developing the DVD format, and led the fight to defeat Circuit City's discredited DivX pay-per-view system.
The emergence of the single-format DVD was largely his work. He also pushed the home video industry to adopt an affordable…
In a press conference held September 28 at Sony Music Studios on West 54th Street, MusicGiants —see Wes Phillips' earlier story on this company—announced the launch of a new music download service that offers CD-resolution digital recordings from the major artists on the major music labels, EMI, Sony/BMG, Universal, and Warner.
All Internet services use compression to minimize the download times but streaming services compress the data down to rates below 128kbps and download services, epitomized by iTunes, rarely operate above 256kbps. The use of intelligent schemes minimizes the…
Consumer electronics site Etown has become the latest victim of the dot-com bust, dismissing its entire workforce of approximately 100 people in New York and San Francisco. The company had run out of money, according to chief executive Robert Heiblim. Etown, operated by Collaborative Media, Inc., has transferred its remaining assets to electronics retailer Best Buy, Inc. of Minneapolis, a major investor. The site was still active as of Sunday, February 18; whether Best Buy will simply shut it down or use it as a sales organ isn't known at present.
Etown's customer service employees…
Classical music fans will be happy to learn that Vivendi Universal has decided to give two of its classical labels a state-of-the-art web facelift. Decca and Philips Classics are combining their resources and launching a single new site this month designed by trendy web developer Razorfish.
Taking a page from their rock and jazz web counterparts, the classical sites feature "rarely seen" video footage of artists in recording sessions, along with tour dates, artist and composer biographies, email newsletters, and new release listings. In addition, Razorfish says it has created links to…
With worldwide demand for semiconductors lower than it has been in many years, Philips Electronics NV has announced an organizational streamlining that may cost 4000 workers their jobs.
The announcement was made Friday, November 23, by chief executive Gerard Kleisterlee. In a letter to company executives, Kleisterlee indicated that cuts would be made in Philips' finance, human resources, and information technology departments, in the hope of saving as much as 300 million euros (US$263.8 million) over an unspecified period of time. Philips has already cut approximately 6000 jobs this year…