Next, Jonathan Scull is legendary for being one of the most insightful critics in the audio business. Read his review of the Classé Omega power amplifier and find out if solid-state has finally come of age. Also…
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Newcomer Revel has been on a roll lately, piling up accolades all around for its new line of loudspeakers. Larry Greenhill takes a look at the recently unveiled Revel Salon and explains how it compares to the Sydney Opera House. "Did the Salon meet its design goals of timbral accuracy, low distortion, and lack of dynamic compression?" Read all about it in Greenhill's report.
In his review of the Wadia 830 CD player, Brian Damkroger states: "My take on the Wadia was that: a) it probably wasn't going to sound that much better than the best of the $1000-ish players I had around, and b) even if it did, the differences wouldn't matter enough to me to justify its cost. My audio path took a dramatic turn one weekend, however, when a pair of cable manufacturers stopped by to demo their new products." Read about his journey and the ultimate audio destination will be revealed.
Next up, Stereophile's senior editor, Jonathan Scull, gets his hands on the VTL Wotan MB-1250…
Retailers accused of selling pirated compact discs are feeling legal heat from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In May, the organization launched copyright infringement suits against 18 retail businesses in Texas, Florida, and New York—primarily convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores, and small independent music stores.
The 18 defendants were among dozens of such businesses that were caught in RIAA "sting" operations conducted last year. Most chose to settle out of court. RIAA president Cary Sherman acknowledged that "these are tough economic times for many…
Venture capital group Shared Ventures is now the legal owner of the assets of Wadia Digital Corporation. Wadia's majority shareholder, Shared Ventures, acquired the company's name, intellectual property, and physical inventory at a public auction in Minneapolis on September 12. The law firm of Siegel, Brill, Greupner, Duffy, and Foster, P/A, of Minneapolis, managed the auction. Originally scheduled for late August, the auction was postponed for two weeks after a flurry of interest following the publication of an official notice in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
As majority shareholder,…
Soundsareactive.com, an eclectic independent label specializing in "jazz/improv, experimental hip-hop, and electronic artists," is offering a subscription package for its 2005 release schedule. For $35 (US price; the international price is $50), the label will send monthly downloadable MP3 (192kbps) releases for the rest of 2005, four "physical" CDs, and a "tour" DVD titled XN+.
The label points out that the MP3s are free, whether or not consumers subscribe to the package. "Think of it this way," the website explains, "everyone can enjoy the music. However, only some wish to support it. We…
Satellite radio continues to surge in popularity, but competitors XM and Sirius both posted losses for the third fiscal quarter, ended September 30.
On Thursday, November 4, XM Satellite Radio reported a third-quarter loss of $118 million—less than analysts had predicted, and a better performance than the $133 million lost in the same period in 2003. Quarterly revenue was $65.4 million, aided by the addition of more than 415,000 new subscribers. The revenue total was more than twice the $27 million posted a year earlier. XM's subscriber base is now above 2.5 million and should reach 3…
Is it merely the tip of the iceberg, or a temporary diversion? Hard to say just yet, but a recent report from the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association (CEMA) suggests that increasing numbers of folks are using their PCs in place of, or in addition to, regular audio systems.
According to the annual Multimedia PC survey released last week, "faster access to the Internet and greater technological awareness have spurred today's multimedia PC owners to use their computers increasingly for entertainment purposes."
"We were able to use a December 1996 survey as a historical…
It's bad enough that the consumer electronics giants and small fry compete with each other. Increasingly, they are finding they must defend themselves against an onslaught from the personal computer industry which is eating away at the market share of traditional CE vendors.
Perhaps we should blame the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas each year, where the PC companies watch across the aisle as the CE manufacturers reap relatively large margins on products that are often based on CPUs and hard drives. With declining revenues in the traditional PC industry, PC makers such as Apple…
A quickly established favorite among music fans, the CDDB website provides comprehensive information for tracking who and what appears on just about any CD in existence (see previous). But as users of the service are discovering, the company that now maintains the database, Gracenote, is starting to change the rules of access.
The CDDB database has grown over the years as a result of support from the nearly one million users who voluntarily enter information about CDs into the system. But now that Gracenote is tightening control of the database, some are wondering just who owns a publicly…
Stereovox's new Signals: Stereovox, Inc. and Signals-SuperFi, LLC have announced that worldwide distribution for Stereovox products will be handled exclusively by Signals-SuperFi from its Atlanta, GA offices as of November 1, 2005. Known for innovative audio, video, and digital cable technology, Stereovox hopes to increase its exposure and market share by more closely associating with the luxury audio brands represented by Signals-SuperFi.
Signals-SuperFi introduced its debut collection of distributed brands at HE2005 in May, a selection that included the Danish-made Peak-Consult…