Stereophile Staff

The Three Tenors may have reached a global audience of 2 billion people during their performance prior to the final game of the World Cup, but they had only 80,000 fans on hand in Paris's Champs de Mars park, acording to estimates by Paris police. That number was only 10% of the anticipated 800,000, most of whom stayed away because of unseasonably cold and windy weather.

E-mail spam just got a lot noisier thanks to AT&T's <A HREF="http://www.a2bmusic.com">a2b music</A> and <A HREF="http://www.bmg.com/">BMG Entertainment</A>. (See previous stories <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10198/">1</A&gt;, <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10133/">2</A&gt;.) Last week, they announced that BMG will deliver the first "mass communication" of a2b MAIL to the consumer databases of each of its websites, <A HREF="http://www.bugjuice.com">www.bugjuice.com</A&gt; (alternative and rock music), <A HREF="http://www.peeps.com">www.peeps.com</A&gt; (urban music), and <A HREF="http://www.twangthis.com">www.twangthis.com</A&gt; (country music).

On June 23, <A HREF="http://www.burr-brown.com/">Burr-Brown Corp.</A> announced the PCM1728 digital-to-analog converter (DAC), designed for consumer and professional audio applications.

On June 17, <A HREF="http://www.carltonplc.co.uk/">Carlton Communications</A>, owner of Technicolor, announced that it has entered into a merger agreement to acquire <A HREF="http://www.nimbuscd.com/">Nimbus CD International</A>, one of the world's largest independent manufacturers of optical discs, including CD-Audio, DVD, DVD-ROM, and CD-ROM.

Hundreds of manufacturers will be demonstrating state-of-the-art audio products at <A HREF="http://www.hifishow.com">HI-FI '98</A>---some of which have never before been seen by the public. Here is the last installment of announcements:

Hundreds of manufacturers will be demonstrating state-of-the-art audio products at <A HREF="http://www.hifishow.com">HI-FI '98</A>---some of which have never before been seen by the public. We're running several announcements each week leading up to the Show to give you a taste of what to expect. Here's the fourth assortment:

Did they capture the sound of her violin? Did the nuance of a 9' Steinway grand piano translate onto the disc with all of its dynamic range intact? Hear for yourself when Ida Levin and Delores Stevens mark the debut of <I>Stereophile</I>'s latest recording, <I>Duet</I>, with two live performances at HI-FI '98.