News

News recently coming out of Cambridge, England promises yet another new revolutionary loudspeaker technology following in the footsteps of NXT's">http://www.nxt.co.uk/">NXT's flat-panel speakers and ATC's">http://www.atcsd.com/">ATC's HyperSonic">http://www.atcsd.com/HTML/whitepaper.html">HyperSonic Sound and Stratified">http://www.atcsd.com/RELEASES/pr020998.html">Stratified Field Technology. Engineering consultant Tony Hooley heads up a team of researchers who have created what they hope will be a breakthrough in small, lightweight, highly accurate-sounding arrays of digitally driven pressure transducers.

April brought several important executive changes to the audio industry.

On May 5, Global">http://global.ihs.com">Global Engineering Documents (Global) signed an exclusive worldwide agreement with the Audio">http://www.aes.org">Audio Engineering Society (AES) to reproduce, market, distribute, and sell AES industry standards worldwide.

There's good news on the download front. Two sites, one in the UK and the other in the US, are gearing up for major expansions of their catalogs. Both offer DRM-free files in both lossless and high-quality (320kbps) MP3 formats.

Classé's new player: Classé'shttp://www.classeaudio.com">Classé's; new Delta line of components now includes a DVD player. The $6500 CDP-300 plays DVD-V, DVD-A, standard CD, DualDisc, Video-CD, S-VCD, and JPEG picture discs, in addition to those encoded with MP3, WMA, and AAC audio formats.

Simaudio, Ltd. has proudly introduced its MOON limited edition (LE) series audio components, a "reference level" music system which consists of the MOON Nova LE CD player and MOON i-5 LE dual-mono integrated amplifier (75Wpc/8 ohms). The company will produce only 250 units of each model per year. They feature polished chrome accents, thick brushed-and-anodized silver faceplates, and custom two-meter Cardas power cords. The MOON Nova LE CD player is priced at $3500; the MOON i-5 integrated amplifier is $3200.

Satellite startup XM">http://www.xmradio.com">XM Radio got a nice Christmas gift on December 24—an infusion of $450 million in new financing that should sustain it well into 2004.

Late summer isn't typically a time when new audio products appear, but on August 29 we received two noteworthy announcements.

Attention, high-end audio manufacturers ready to crack the exporting nut: The Consumer">http://www.ce.org">Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has just released its "General Guide for the Export of Consumer Electronics," providing a step-by-step process which the CEA says manufacturers can use to navigate the often uncharted and challenging regulatory waters of the export market. According to the CEA, the guide focuses on assisting manufacturers in exporting their products to the South American and Pacific Rim countries of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. The organization reports that, in a survey of its membership, these countries were identified as primary growth markets of interest.

On Friday, November 12, AV Therapy of Nashua, New Hampshire, will host its first annual “Groove Event,” in loving memory of Mark Terletzky, its late co-owner and Groove Champion. This is the store’s first in-person event in two years.