News

Want to do some audiophile shopping and do some good for others? The">http://www.fatwyre.com">The Cable Company, along with several manufacturers and audiophile publications, have set up a program by which they offer to donate up to 10% of August purchases to CARE and the International Rescue Committee, these contributions to be used to assist the worldwide disaster-relief efforts of those humanitarian organizations.

The">http://www.thewiz.com/wiz/app/CeMain">The Wiz may not be long for this world. On Monday, February 10, Cablevision">http://www.cablevision.com">Cablevision Systems Corporation announced that it would sell or close its remaining 17 consumer electronics stores, all in the New York metro area, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The announcement came only a few days after Circuit City announced major cutbackshttp://www.stereophile.com/news/11569/">cutbacks; of its workforce and the elimination of sales commissions.

Great Britain is dreaming of a silent night. A new recording of John Cage's controversial piece, “4'33",” stands a good chance of becoming Britain’s best-selling single during Christmas week. (Woo!)

Ken Boyce's Cake Audio of San Clemente united many well-respected brands in a fine system that impressed many show goers. At the top of my "Wow, this is good" list were the lovely piano timbres on a 45rpm pressing of Eugene Istomin performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No.24, and good old Elvis' absolutely fabulous, prime voice, do-with-me-what-you-want rendition of "Fever." Not yet the overdone cynic of his later years, Presley perfectly gauged every single syllable and nuance in his surprisingly tasteful, no questions left to ask performance. Need I say that it would not have sounded half as mesmerizing if the gear had not been up to snuff?

On Monday, January 5th, Go-Video">http://www.govideo.com">Go-Video, Inc. announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire California">http://www.calaudio.com">California Audio Labs LLC. Under the California Audio Labs and Cinevision brand names, Cal Audio designs, develops, manufactures, and distributes digital audio and video products marketed to the high-end home entertainment systems market.

After a gap of far too many years, Northern California again has a high-end audio show. Sponsored by Constantine Soo's DaGoGo.com, the fledgling California">http://www.caaudioshow.com/">California Audio Show will take place July 30 –August 1 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Emeryville. That location —next to Interstate 80, just across the bridge from San Francisco, midway between Oakland and Berkeley, and a free (albeit time-sensitive) shuttle">http://emerygoround.com/schedule.php">shuttle ride from the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) MacArthur line—is expected to draw a good cross-section of audiophiles from throughout the Bay Area.

The 5th annual California Audio Show takes place August 15–17 in the four-star Westin SFO hotel in Millbrae, CA. Easily accessible via the freeway or BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), this smaller-scaled show showcases rarely encountered big speakers from Dynaudio, Genesis, JBL, and Sound Labs.

Questionable accounting practices were at the heart of the collapse of energy conglomerate Enron and telecommunications giant WorldCom. Apparently, they are also rampant in the music industry—or at least pervasive enough to command the attention of California state legislators, who have scheduled a second hearing to examine the situation.

Move over John, George, Ringo, and Paul. There's another remastering that's come on the scene, and it's every bit as important as the Beatles Mono Edition. It's Warner Classics' high-resolution, 24/96 digital remastering of soprano Maria Callas' entire studio-sourced discography. Consisting of arias, recitals and complete operas recorded 1949–1969, the remasterings reach the international public on September 22, and US music lovers on September 23. Their sound, whether in the 69-CD box set of her entire studio recordings, or HDtracks' 24/96 downloads of its individual components, is revelatory.

He's got his own bonds on Wall Street, houses all over the world, a fashion-model wife, and more wealth than any other rock star to date. But what he really wanted was his own Internet Service Provider. As a result, David Bowie goes online September 1 with the first rock-star-based ISP: BowieNethttp://www.davidbowie.com">BowieNet;.