News

On August 15, Klipsch Group, Inc. announced the acquisition of Canadian firm Audio Products International Corp. (API), one of the largest speaker manufacturers in the world. API, which makes loudspeakers under the Mirage, Energy, Spherez, Sound Dynamics, and Athena Technologies brands, was founded in 1973 and is sold in over 50 countries worldwide. Klipsch, which makes speakers under the Klipsch marque as well as Jamo, was founded in 1946 by legendary speaker designer Paul W. Klipsch and has become "the largest stand-alone speaker manufacturer in the US."

This is old news, but you may not have read it anywhere: Warner Classics no longer exists as an "active" label. Gramophone published a news item breaking the story on June 2 and Norman Lebrecht apparently analyzed and excoriated the move in his La Scena Musicale web log shortly thereafter. We say "apparently," since Lebrecht's site now reads www.scena.org is now expired.

The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will play host to the Technology & Innovation Emmy Awards for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) in January 2007. The awards ceremony will be the CES' opening event on January 8, 2007, and will kick off the show's 40th-anniversary celebration.

Just as the mythical Phoenix arose from its own ashes, the birds of the Talon Audio line have again taken flight, this time as Talon Loudspeakers. As of August 7, Rives Audio (www.rivesaudio.com) has acquired Talon Audio and plans to reintroduce many of the company's most successful models.

One of the great sopranos of the 20th century, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, died in her sleep at her home in Schruns, Austria, on August 3, at the age of 90. The myriad ways in which she employed her remarkably expressive, silvery soprano gave rise to as much admiration and respect as her penchant for incessant nuance, along with her Nazi past, generated controversy.

Dean Roumanis, chief operating officer and part owner of Krell Industries, died Sunday, July 30, of a heart attack, one day after being taken to the hospital following chest pains he experienced after a long bicycle ride. He was 52.

Slim Devices, the company best known for the Squeezeboxhttp://www.stereophile.com/images/newsletter/306Bstph.html">Squeezebox<…;, has announced what it is billing as "the most advanced networked audio system available." At Stereophile, we hear this claim all the time, and it usually means that a computer peripheral company has added another USB port to a product aimed at the MP3 crowd.