News

It's been a while since the Stereophile website was freshened up. Probably too long. So this time we decided to start from scratch and combine the stack of reader suggestions we've received with the thousands of articles and other features already online to create something that we hope scratches your audiophile itch better than ever.

Warner's new e-label: In an announcement datelined "Aspen, CO," many news services reported, Warner Music Group chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman, Jr. introduced a new Internet music distribution system called an "e-label," which would eschew CDs by allowing artists to issue their music in clusters of three songs every few months.

Imerge merged: Linear, LLC (Carlsbad, CA, USA) has acquired Imerge, Ltd. (Cambridge, UK), one of Europe's top providers of Internet-connected, hard disk-based audio products and media appliances. (Imerge's relational XiVA-Link database software is used in such products as the Linn">http://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/497">Linn Kivor media server.) Linear is best known for its engineered radio-frequency (RF) products and as a major supplier of wireless residential security systems, intercoms, garage door operators, gate operators, short- and long-range radio remote controls, and medical/emergency reporting systems. In recent years the company, through acquisition, has expanded into consumer electronics, home entertainment products, and structured wiring systems for the builder market. Imerge will join Linear's Home Technology Group.

Editor's Note: Stereophile writer Richard (Rick) J. Rosen passed away suddenly on Monday August 22, of unknown causes. Rick wrote show reports and the occasional software review for the magazine, but his highest-profile contributions were his "Rick Visits..." series of interviews, where he hung out with music makers, asking them about their systems, of course, but also their relationships with recorded music. The first of these was with famed keyboard player Al Kooper in our October 1995 issue, and I was proud, as an editor, to be able to publish such superbly crafted prose.