NPD found that, because consumers are more comfortable with CDs and the dual-deck approach to home recording, CD recorders are rapidly gaining popularity. In addition, NPD explains that "the…
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Information released last week by NPD Intelect reveals eye-opening statistics about digital audio recorder formats. The numbers show that, from January to May 2000, unit shares of digital recording sales in retail stores were 30.8% for CD recorders (not including computer-based systems), 40.9% for MiniDisc recorders, and 28.3% for MP3 recording devices (also not including computer-based systems).
Last Thursday, Virgin Entertainment Group announced an agreement with RedDotNet, a Digital on Demand company, that Virgin says will allow its customers to download music and create custom CDs, DVDs, and MiniDiscs in-store. Virgin describes the deal as "a revolutionary development heralding a new wave of music retailing." As part of the agreement, Virgin will become a shareholder in Digital on Demand, RedDotNet's parent company.
The first unveiling of this approach to audio distribution will be at the chain's newest Megastore, set to open in Columbus, Ohio next month. The company says the…
Although it announced support for SACD in early September, the world's third-largest record label, EMI Music Distribution, says it is also gearing up for a full slate of DVD-Audio titles. While the company has numerous new releases available, these will be the first to come from its back catalog.
EMI reports that the first three titles in the series, culled from various labels, are slated for release in December and include Al Green's Greatest Hits, Leon Russell's Retrospective, and Eric Johnson's Ah Via Musicom. In the months that follow, the label says, other key catalog titles will…
Chip Stern finds the AH! Njoe Tjoeb 4000 CD player to be a bargain in its modest price range. CS writes: "Consider the notion of an exceptionally musical, single-chassis CD player with a tubed output stage that evinces the kind of soundstaging depth, liquidity, timbral accuracy, high-frequency detail, and top-to-bottom smoothness for which, barely five years ago, consumers might have eagerly coughed up $3000 and more."
Next, Art Dudley looks for the ultimate outlet in Listening #11. After sorting through a few hardware bins and higher-priced products, AD gets down to the job of how to wire…
High-end journal The Abso!ute Sound, long rumored to be circling the drain, has been officially revived. According to a press release dated March 24, TAS will be operated under a new company, Absolute Multimedia, owned by Tom Martin, a vice-president at Dell Computer. Martin has reportedly arranged serious financing for the new venture, which will be based in Austin, Texas.
TAS founder Harry Pearson will continue as editor-in-chief, as will longtime staffer Sallie Reynolds as managing editor, who returns to TAS from the now defunct Audio Adventure magazine. Mark Fisher, who was…
We were sorry to learn that Hiroyasu Kondo died January 8, while attending CES in Las Vegas.
Kondo was sometimes referred to as "the Picasso of audio design," reflecting his strong desire to walk his own path. Born the second son of a Buddhist priest, he taught electronic engineering and molecular metallurgy before founding Audio Note Japan in 1976. Kondo used aged annealed silver in his audio designs—including the windings in his transformers—leading some industry wags to refer to him as "the silversmith." The 27Wpc, $80,000-plus Kondo Ongaku single-ended triode amplifier is widely…
Chip Stern provides us with a mini-review of the Sony SCD-777ES . Find out why this SACD player prompted him to exclaim: "At $2500, the SCD-777ES is not merely a Class A component, it's a steal."
Next we have John Atkinson's "As We See It" from April 2001, "Music Before Numbers?" Just how important are those specs when reviewing a product? Reader letters included.
Digging back into the archives a few years, J. Gordon Holt's "As We See It" from January 1985 confronts head-on those pesky charges of Snob Appeal. Responding to mail claiming that Stereophile only appealed to "snobbish"…
More members of the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) are doing retail sales than ever before, although not necessarily out of traditional retail locations, according to new statistics released by the organization. In addition, an increasing number of referrals come from builders rather than from interior designers and architects, indicating that home buyers see home theater and distributed music systems as valuable features.
The trends were revealed in a recent survey of the association's membership, to which 178 of CEDIA's 810 members responded. 49% of CEDIA…
The Consumer Electronics Association announced last week its finalists for the 2005 "Demmy Awards," a collection of audio demonstration music that the group puts together for retailers and manufacturers. The panel of judges for the awards include Stereophile's own John Atkinson.
The CEA sorts the choices into five categories: Best CD Track, Best High-Resolution Two-Channel Track, Best High-Resolution Multi-Channel Track, Best Segment of a DVD as a Movie, and Best Segment of a DVD as a Music Video or Concert.
Old standbys from Pink Floyd (DSOTM) and the ubiquitous Diana Krall are…
A soon-to-be-introduced bill in the US House of Representatives could severely alter the legality of behavior so commonplace that most Americans take it for granted.
When photocopiers became widespread in the 1960s, people quickly discovered—to the dismay of publishers—that they could be used to copy newspaper and magazine articles and sections of books. The swelling popularity of the cassette deck in the 1970s gave millions of music lovers their first opportunities to make their own compilation recordings, a development that launched the music industry into paroxysms of hysteria over "…