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Added to the Archives This Week

Brian Damkroger listens long and hard to the Primare D30.2 CD player noting, "Primare is reluctant to provide much technical detail about their designs, preferring to let their products do the talking." So after a little chatting, BD files his report.

For vinyl fans, Art Dudley auditions the Audio Note M2 Balanced Phono preamplifier. AD writes, "The M2 has come up for redesign, resulting in a product that not only nips at the M3's heels but comes close to tying the race."

Next, we have Brian Damkroger's concise review of the concise Placette Audio Remote Volume Control passive…

Texas Instruments Acquires Danish Digital Amplifier Company

One of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers is making a move into digital audio. Texas Instruments announced March 16 that it has acquired Toccata Technology ApS, a small, privately held company based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Toccata is "one of the leading developers of digital audio amplifier technology and board solutions," according to a TI press release, and will become part of TI's Digital Speakers Business Unit, continuing to operate from Denmark.

With the acquisition, Texas Instruments will push into the market for "all types of audio equipment, including personal…

MP3.com Draws $11 Million in Venture Capital

MP3, the popular and controversial Internet music format, took a big step toward legitimacy last week. Z Company, which operates San Diego-based MP3.com, announced that it had attracted $11 million in venture capital from idealab! and Sequoia Capital. Z Company will change its name to MP3.com Inc. to reflect the company's core business interests, said president Michael Robertson.

An initial public offering is likely, observers noted. Robertson remarked that "Sequoia Capital likes to back companies that go public. We'll grow it in a way that makes sense." He didn't mention a projected…

HE 2004 East Takes Manhattan!

The Home Entertainment 2004 East Show, held in New York City, May 20–23, at the New York Hilton & Towers, gave Show attendees a memorable weekend filled with live music, educational seminars, a special movie night, and a grand concert—all included with the price of admission to the Show.

Over the four days of the Show, the New York Hilton & Towers was filled with almost 15,000 home entertainment enthusiasts, 2500 members of the trade, and 450 journalists from all over the world, who came to demo the finest home audio, video, computer, and digital photography technology, as well as…

NHT Makes Another Move

Arizona-based Rockford Corporation announced last week that it has acquired loudspeaker designer Now Hear This (NHT) from Recoton Corporation. Previous Rockford acquisitions include Fosgate, Hafler, Acoustat, and MB Quart. The company says that specific terms of the new agreement are confidential.

NHT, which markets home theater, stereo, custom installation, and professional audio products under the brand names NHT, Now Hear This, and NHTPro, was established in 1986 by Chris Byrne and Ken Kantor and quickly established itself as an audiophile favorite. Robert J. Reina recently favorably…

CD Lockdown

They have become the companies music fans around the world love to hate. But to their stockholders, the businesses developing CD-restriction technologies are a promising new technology niche for investing. SunnComm is one of these new companies dedicated to finding means to restrict the ways consumers can use compact discs, and last week they used their annual stockholder meeting as an opportunity to announce their latest copy-protection product.

At the presentation, which took place at SunnComm's corporate offices, the company explained that its new "revolutionary technology" had been…

DVD-Audio is Finally Here

DVD-Audio has been "almost here" for so many months that it seemed almost anticlimactic when the first players finally emerged on dealer shelves this week. Late in May of this year, Panasonic announced (see previous story) that they would be releasing two players, one under the Panasonic banner and the other under the company's Technics brand, in July. It looks as if they've finally made good on their promise.

Several retailers are reporting a trickle of players, with west-coast consumer electronics retailing chain Good Guys announcing last week that Panasonic and Technics DVD-Audio…

Internet: Only Hope for Classical Music?

Record stores are devoting a diminishing amount of space to classical music, to the dismay of music lovers. Online distribution may offer hope for the genre, according to an in-depth report by Anthony Tommasini in the October 21 edition of the New York Times.

This past spring, financially troubled Tower Records issued a memo to its stores to stop buying from several independent record distributors, including Allegro, Qualiton, and Harmonia Mundi USA. The news was particularly disquieting for fans of classical music: The three distributors account for dozens of small specialty labels, and…

DVD-A Chips Ahoy

If you peer back into audio history, you'll discover that long-term formats are generally established at the mass-market level and then perfected or re-invented by those with audiophile inclinations. One could argue that SACD and DVD-A are attempts at turning that rule on its head. But the slow start exhibited by both formats (with the copy-restriction issue a new and rather large stumbling block) indicates that, once again, the mass market needs to get involved before we can really move forward.

It would be prudent to suggest, therefore, that both DVD-A's and SACD's progress will be in…

Added to the Archives This Week

As Jonathan Scull reports in his review of the Classé Omega Super Audio CD player, "Classé has guts. These are uncertain times, but here they are with an audiophile classic: an expensive two-channel Super Audio CD player." Read how one of the first SACD machines from a high-end audio company stacks up.

John Atkinson notes that the idea of integrating the power amplifier into the loudspeaker is not a new one. But the Meridian DSP8000 digital active loudspeaker may express this concept better than most. JA explains.

Next we have Chip Stern's thoughtful musings on the Joseph Audio…