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…
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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.
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…
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…
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…
On December 14, the music industry and small webcasters concluded their long and often-acrimonious negotiations on royalties. The two parties—the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) "SoundExchange," a royalty-collecting body, and the Voice of Webcasters (VOW)—filed an agreement with the US Copyright Office in Washington that details generalities agreed to under the Small Webcaster Settlement Act (SWSA), signed December 4.
Under the agreement, eligible small webcasters will pay 8% of their gross revenue, or 5% of expenses incurred during the period October 28, 1998–December…
One of my fondest memories of CES 2005 was spending a spare (well, technically, stolen) hour in T+A's room, listening to the German company's $4500 SACD-1245 CD/SACD player through T+A's $8500 V-10 integrated amplifier and a pair of Amphion's $1150/pair Helium two-way loudspeakers. Accordingly, when Quartet Marketing's Stirling Trayle called me to announce that he was in New York with the first sample of T+A's new tubed $9500 D-10 CD/SACD player, I was eager to hear it.
So eager, in fact, that I completely forgot to take any demonstration material with me into Innovative Audio's Manhattan…
From the May 2002 issue, Michael Fremer positions the Odeon La Traviata loudspeaker in his listening lair, writing, "Interest in super-efficient, horn-loaded, compression-driver loudspeakers has grown in the past few years." But as MF finds, horns may not always do the trick.
Next, Robert Deutsch listens to the Aerial Acoustics Model 7B loudspeaker and files his report for the July 1999 Stereophile. "I've heard speakers that I knew to be top-notch performers sound dreadful at audio shows and in dealers' listening rooms. But not the speakers from Aerial Acoustics," says RD, as he tries…
Tuesday, May 6, 2003 could be a turning point in the contentious history of recording artists and record labels. On that day, hundreds of American musicians will converge on Albany, NY in support of the Artistic Freedom Act of 2003. If passed, the bill would give artists unprecedented freedom in negotiating and terminating recording contracts.
Legislation backed by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, is now before both the New York State Assembly (assembly bill A6951) and Senate (senate bill S4548). It reflects widespread dissatisfaction among performers who often get locked…
For some time now, the truly hip Web-enabled person of stature has shared his or her thoughts with the world via a blog (from web log); these days actors, musicians, and, yes, even politicians are getting into the act.
On July 7, the Federal Communications Commission chairman became a blogger. Powell's column is slated to be a regular feature on the AlwaysOn Network. Powell explains, "I am participating in AlwaysOn Network's blog [ . . . ] to hear from the tech community directly and to try to get beyond the traditional inside the Beltway Washington world where lobbyists filter the techies…
Clear Channel Communications, the radio industry's 900-lb gorilla, may be getting too big for its britches.
During the last weeks of January, US lawmakers heard complaints from small station owners who had been driven out of business by Clear Channel, and allegations of its strong-arm tactics from recording artists. Some senators expressed doubts about the wisdom of further loosening ownership restrictions on the broadcasting industry, an issue being considered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Clear Channel is the nation's largest radio operator, with 1233 stations,…