Gene Radzik, a Dolby audio application engineer for music and broadcast applications, brought a group of journalists and Audio Engineering Society members up to date on both the history and the state of the DVD-Audio art. The easygoing and well-spoken Radzik…
search
DVD-Audio will soon bring high-resolution multichannel sound to music lovers, but they may be dismayed by the format's several varieties and the semi-compatible hardware that will be needed to play them. That was the impression left by a lecture the last week of June at Dolby Laboratories' Presentation Studio in San Francisco.
The iPod is making sweet music for Apple Computer, Inc.
The Cupertino, CA company reported that sales of the portable music player lifted revenue 29% and more than tripled profits for the fiscal second quarter ended March 27. Apple posted net income of $46 million compared with $14 million for the same period a year earlier. The investment community responded by pushing up the value of Apple stock by 10%, to $29.16/share as of Wednesday, April 14.
The most recent quarter marks the first time that Apple has sold more iPods than computers—807,000 music players vs 749,000 computers (…
In some ways, entrepreneurs resemble the folks who fix your roof: When they see a hole somewhere, their job is to find a way to fill it. Long-time high-end audio veterans Mel and Howard Schilling and Doug Goldberg say they have spotted a hole in the audio market and are getting ready to launch a new company to fill it.
The Schillings are well-known to audiophiles as the owners of Camelot Technology, and Doug Goldberg has designed equipment for Camelot Technology, PS Audio, Genesis, and Audio Alchemy. Together they have started a new company, xHiFi, which they claim "re-defines the notion…
A key benefit of working with Stereophile is enjoying the expertise of fellow audio nerds. After the HI-FI Show just held in Los Angeles, Jonathan Scull and Kathleen Benveniste spent a week riding up the California Coast and paid us each a visit.
On the face of it, most hard-core audiophiles would likely kill for a chance to get a visit from the notorious J-10. After all, he might even come in and comb your carpet free of charge. Just think what your fellow neighborhood audiophiles would say when you regaled them with tales of how he tipped your speakers this way and that.
But…
Twenty years ago, the introduction of the compact disc put the music world on a new path. Not long after its debut, Meridian Audio Ltd. launched the world's first audiophile CD player, the MCD. That player and others that followed drew audiophiles into the digital age.
The Huntingdon, UK–based technology company has pursued a program of constant improvement ever since. On August 20, Meridian marked the 20th anniversary of the MCD with the release of the 808, the newest CD player in its flagship 800 Reference Series, and "the best-sounding player we have ever made," in the words of Meridian…
First, the sobering reality: Among the world's billions of music lovers, probably a million or fewer are true audiophiles, for whom sound quality is a primary concern. The uncritical majority will embrace any audio technology that offers economy and convenience. Case in point: the popularity of the MP3 digital format, widely derided by audiophiles for its compressed dynamics and lack of detail, but adopted readily by the general public because of its ease of use.
Although the format came into being less than four years ago, portable MP3 players in use now number in excess of 12 million,…
Waiting for the Holy Grail of DVD-Audio? Even with players still distant on the horizon, one can now begin building a DVD-Audio music library with discs compatible with current DVD-Video players. At least that's the strategy offered at the recent High End 2000 show in Frankfurt, Germany this past week.
Syrinx Music & Media has announced that, in a joint production with Audionet and Frequenzwerkstatt, it will soon release what they describe as "the first-ever DVD to meet both the high-resolution DVD-Audio standard as well as the DVD-Video standard." The jazz disc features the Hamamura…
Sam Tellig and Kalman Rubinson each take a run at the unique PS Audio HCA-2 power amplifier to see what it's made of. Will Tellig and Rubinson agree on the HCA-2's worth? Furthermore, what do the odd results of John Atkinson's measurements mean?
"Quirky but fundamentally conservative," is how Michael Fremer describes the design team that came up with the Naim CD5 CD player with Flatcap 2 power supply. MF adds that "at $2250, the CD5 is at the bottom of Naim's current line of CD players. But that doesn't mean they skimped on parts or build quality."
Tubes, computers, and MP3s in…
An unusual tropical rain welcomed the Audio Engineering Society to its 109th gathering, held at the Los Angeles Convention Center September 22–25. Audiophiles may breathe a collective sigh of relief to learn that the Super Audio Compact Disc is getting a big push, not only from corporate parents Sony/Philips but from studio-equipment makers, consumer-electronics companies, and—perhaps most important—music labels.
"More than 160 SACD titles are available now," said Sony Electronics' Nathan Bentall, who gave me the Cook's tour of hardware and software tools for the new format. Arrayed on a…
When polled earlier this month, Stereophile's online readers were split on the topic of DVD-Audio's surround capabilities: 30% expressed interest, but an equal number were not so thrilled with the idea. While the release of the official high-resolution DVD-A format is still several months away, some record labels have been quick to capitalize on the ability of current DVD players to play compressed AC3- and DTS-encoded audio DVDs, in the hopes of developing a market for a lower-fidelity surround-sound format.
In an effort to woo surround-sound fans, last week the 5.1 Entertainment Group…