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Sony to Push Hi-Rez Downloads & Playback

John Atkinson Sep 05, 2013 First Published: Sep 05, 2013 0 comments

It was like old times. A major consumer electronics company was presenting a press conference in a high-rent venue to introduce its new audio products. These events used to be commonplace; now they are rare. But on September 4, in Manhattan's Jazz at Lincoln Center, to an audience that included record company executives from Universal, Warner, and Sony Music, HDTracks' Norman and David Chesky, Chad Kassem and Marc Sheforgen from Acoustic Sounds, whose new DSD download store was last week's big news, musician Herbie Hancock, and veteran mastering engineer Mark Wilder, Phil Molyneux, President and Chief Operating Officer of Sony Electronics since September 2010, announced that the company saw high-resolution audio as the future of recorded music playback.

Music and Recording Features News

Wilson Audiophile Recordings Return

Jason Victor Serinus Jul 31, 2013 First Published: Jul 31, 2013 0 comments

Many of David Wilson's highly acclaimed, long out-of-print recordings are poised to make old and new generations of audiophiles very happy. On August 1, the first two of a selected batch of Wilson Audiophile Recordings will return to circulation as high-resolution (176.4kHz/24-bit), CD-quality, and MP3 downloads. Distributed by Naxos via a host of mass-market and hi-res digital music stores, including Chandos' "The Classical Shoppe," eClassical24bit, HDMusic, HDTracks, HiResAudio, Linn Records, Onkyo, and Qobuz24bit, the first titles in the series are Recital, James B. Welch's disc of four centuries of organ music, and Beethoven and Enescu Sonatas, performed by violinist David Abel and pianist Julie Steinberg, this magazine's "Recording of the Month" for February 1984.

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Home Theater Merges with Sound & Vision

Stereophile Staff Jul 22, 2013 First Published: Jul 22, 2013 0 comments

Stereophile's owner, Source Interlink Media (SIM), announced today that it is merging the two most powerful print and online media brands in the home technology field, Home Theater and Sound & Vision, to create a single powerhouse consumer brand dedicated to electronic entertainment.

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The Good Rats' Peppi Marchello dies at 68

Robert J. Reina Jul 17, 2013 First Published: Jul 17, 2013 0 comments

Peppi Marchello, founder, lead singer, composer, and arranger for the rock band, The Good Rats, died on July 10, 2013 from cardiac arrest. He was 68. The band's sophisticated, yet catchy and accessible rock anthems fostered a rabid following among fans in their home base, New York City's Long Island suburb. However, despite five strong albums of original material released between 1974 and 1981, three of which were distributed with major label support, the band was virtually unknown outside of Long Island . . . Rolling Stone dubbed The Good Rats, "The World's Most Famous Unknown Band."

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Amar G. Bose, PhD: 1929–2013

John Marks Jul 13, 2013 First Published: Jul 13, 2013 0 comments

Photo: Bose Corporation

Dr. Amar Bose, founder and CEO of the most successful privately-held consumer-electronics company in history, died Friday, July 12, at his home in Wayland, Massachusetts. He was 83.

Bose became interested in research in audio engineering and psychoacoustics after buying a stereo system and being disappointed by its sound . . .

News

(Mostly) Analog Adventures By the Bay

Jason Victor Serinus Jul 07, 2013 First Published: Jul 07, 2013 0 comments

Zesto’s George Counnas gets excited about his tubed phono and line preamps

It was a first-time venture for Elite Audio Systems, San Francisco’s newest and unique fine-audio emporium. On June 29, 2013, proprietor Michael Woods opened his doors to an event, co-organized with Peter Truce of the Bay Area Audiophile Society’s Analog Committee, that drew close to 60 folks to two mainly analog listening sessions.

News

Website Maintenance

Stereophile Staff Jun 22, 2013 First Published: Jun 22, 2013 0 comments

Our corporate IT department has informed us that they will be performing some server and network upgrades in the production data center today (June 22). Starting at 3:00PM Eastern (12:00PM Pacific) this website will be offline for several hours. Our apologies for any inconvenience.

News

Jade Design Acquires Bob Carver, LLC

Stephen Mejias Jun 19, 2013 First Published: Jun 19, 2013 0 comments

The Bob Carver Black Beauty monoblock power amplifier will continue to be made in the US; Jade Design only plans to make it, and other Carver products, more accessible to more people.

When I visited Jade Design in Franklin, TN, last December, Jade’s president, Dan Laufman, hinted that his company was on the verge of making a major acquisition. Today, Jade Design, parent company of Emotiva, Emotiva Pro, and Sherbourn, has completed the acquisition of tube amp manufacturer Bob Carver, LLC.

News T.H.E. Show Newport 2013

Your Show of Shows: Newport Beach 2013 Starts Friday

Jason Victor Serinus May 25, 2013 First Published: May 25, 2013 0 comments

In only its third year, T.H.E. Show Newport Beach has already become the largest consumer high-end/high-performance/fine-audio show in the United States. Running May 31June 2 in the Hilton and Atrium Hotels, directly across the street from southern California's surprisingly low-key Orange County/John Wayne airport, the booked-to-the-max show promises 140 active exhibit rooms, an estimated 450 manufacturers from around the globe, and enough ancillary events to rival a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey three-ring circus.

Except that there are a lot more rings.

News

Sony and dCS Shine at Music Lovers SF

Jason Victor Serinus May 09, 2013 First Published: May 09, 2013 0 comments

Sony's Yuki Sugiura adjusts the controls in Music Lovers' Reference Room

"Sensational" is an adjective far overplayed in "fine audio" circles (to borrow a phrase that Bob Levi of T.H.E. Show Newport Beach has been using). But I know of no better word to describe the jaw-dropping sound of a dCS/Boulder/Sony set-up at a May 4 demo in the Theater 2 room of Music Lovers Audio, San Francisco. With the assistance of a full complement of Transparent Audio cabling, save for an all-important active USB cable from Synergistic Research, the MacBook Pro/Audirvana-source system, featuring the Sony SS-AR1 speakers that so impressed Kal Rubinson in July 2011 was nothing short of sensational.

For me, the demo began when John R. Quick of Tempo Sales, distributor of digital equipment from UK-based dCS (Data Conversion Systems, Ltd.), ran up to me upon my arrival. Enthusiastically greeting me and my two remarkably well-behaved terrier mixes, Daisy Mae Doven and Leo Gleesun, he declared, "Jason, I have great news for you."

"I can hardly keep hold of the leashes, John," I said, quivering with anticipation. "Tell me, please, before I lose my grip."

"The new Synergistic Research USB Active SE cable blows every other USB cable I've tried out of the water. You've got to hear this thing."