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Lieberfarb Joins Sirius

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…

MusicGiants Offers CD-Quality Downloads

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…

Etown Pulls the Plug; Workers Locked Out

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 Gets Web Boost

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…

Philips Re-org Means Fewer Jobs

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…

Wes Phillips resigns from <I>Stereophile</I> to join the world of PR.

It is with regret that I announce that Wes Phillips has resigned from Stereophile in order to take a position, beginning January 1, 1999, with PR company J.B. Stanton Communications, Inc. Wes and his wife, Joan, will be relocating to Connecticut. I wonder how Wes's unreconstructed Virginia ancestors will take to his becoming a Yankee!

Wes is one of the most talented writers and one of the most perceptive listeners I have had the privilege to work beside. He has been a reviewer for Stereophile since we published his thoughts on loudspeakers in our last big group test (Vol.17 No.8, August…

Holman Conducts First Public Demo of "10.2" Surround Sound

Since the earliest days of stereo—the first experiments with more than single-channel sound happened back in the 1930s—recording and playback have been based on a horizontal model: left-center-right, left-rear, right-rear. "Laterality," as it's sometimes called, can be exploited very well in creating plausible sensations of spatial events, especially by film-industry sound engineers. The believable reproduction of music is considerably more problematic.

In the real world, sounds come at us from all directions—not merely from front, sides, and back, but from above and below as well.…

XCP CDs For 2005?

While a relative trickle of copy-restricted CDs have been released in the US, European labels have been more likely to experiment with lock-down technology. Russia is battling extreme piracy, as its culture and mass communications minister, Aleksandr Sokolov, reported to his government last week, asserting that pirated wares account for 80–90% of the overall audio and video sales in that country.

Sokolov says that his ministry is developing plans to protect intellectual property rights, including a verification program for licensed wares. Sokolov notes, "This will be our know-how enabling…

Texas Instruments Unveils High-Performance Audio DAC

Sony may be pretending that DVD-Audio doesn't exist, and Panasonic may be in denial about SACD, but a new chip from Texas Instruments just might help bring the rival formats a little closer together in consumer living rooms and professional recording studios alike.

Last week, TI announced a high-performance audio digital/analog converter (DAC), from the company's Burr-Brown product line, designed specifically for high-performance consumer and professional audio systems such as DVD and CD players, A/V receivers, Super Audio CD (SACD) players, HDTV receivers, digital effects processors, and…

HE2003—Day Two

Polk Audio completely redesigned its popular RTi series of loudspeakers. The RTis occupy the "better" position in Polk's good (R series), better (RTi), best (LSi) hierachy. The refurbished line features new drivers, higher quality cabinets, and handsome cosmetics—including real wood veneers in black oak and cherry.

The range boasts five models: two two-way bookshelf units (the $259.90/pair RTi 4 and the $459.90/pair RTi 6) and three floorstanding models (the RTi 8 at $839.90/pair, the RTi 10 at $1139.90/pair, and the RTi 12 at $1639.90/pair). All feature new generation polymer/…