Several rooms this year are sporting 1/4" reel to reel decks as source components. <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/012907master/index.html">The Tape Project</A> has caught on with exhibitors in the Venetian including Pioneer/TAD & Magico. Representatives from TTP were often spotted hauling reel to reel tapes, along with the machines that play them (such as this modified Technics 1600) up and down the halls.
The digital outputs include HDMI for audio only output.
Wes Phillips, Stephen Mejias, and Kal Rubinson join San Antonio, Texas retailer Galen Carol on the way to the Venetian. As Galen explained to us, high end retailing is a bit of a challenge, but still viable to dealers that take care of their customers and offer old fashioned service.
The ever-lovely Rosemarie Torcivia and Cynthia Fontaine, running the <I>Stereophile</I> room at the Venetian. They'd appreciate it if someone would bring them a decent sounding stereo to listen to. An ipod even.
The back of the iTransport fully decked out with XLO cabling.
The new Wadia iTransport detailed above also comes in your choice of hot rod finishes. Well not officially, but they couldn't resist making one for the show.
The show has just opened its doors and <I>Stereophile</I>'s Stephen Mejias holds the new Product of the Year awards to be handed out all day long.
This week marks <I>Stereophile</I>'s 10<SUP>th</SUP> year online.
As I write this in the first quarter of 2007, CD sales are off over 22% compared to this time last year. The music industry as we know it, based on sales of some kind of physical medium, is over. While CDs and even LPs will remain available—they're so easy and cheap to make—they've become irrelevant to the mass market and to the future of audiophile recordings. The major labels have also become irrelevant (not to mention highly irritating).
<B>Big Trends:</B><BR>
<I>Wireless Speakers</I>—except that they replace the speaker wire with an AC cord, so you come out kind of even.<BR>
<I>Music Servers</I>—of course it's the sound that matters, but the interface is what will make the difference. Sooloos leads the way.<BR>
<I>Apple iPhone</I>—it's wireless and an iPod. This means your remote can now be your music library too. This will sink in soon, and audiophile WiFi will take off.