Grabbing a few big gulps can sometimes fill you up quickly, but it can also lead to a little indigestion. This proved to be the case for <A HREF="http://www.dm-holdings.com">D&M Holdings</A>, which filed results for the first half of its fiscal year, ending September 30, 2003, and its financial forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2004 with the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
One of the keys to SACD's potential acceptance within the mass market is the hybrid disc format, ensuring that all of those Stones, Dylan, or Pink Floyd discs can be purchased by consumers with regular CD players. Although the DVD-Audio camp has <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11515/index.html">played with the idea</A> of hybrid discs for its format, nothing has made it past the testing stages yet.
One of the visual highlights of the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show and HE 2003 in San Francisco was the <A HREF="http://www.penaudio.fi">Penaudio</A> speakers, sporting a unique sliced-wood veneer wrapped around diminutive two-way designs. While the speakers were easy on the eyes, it wasn't so easy to find a pair to audition in the US.
A recent study by analysts Customer Growth Partners has found that department stores, specialty retailers, and other chains that fill US shopping malls accounted for just 19% of total retail sales in 2002, down from 38% in 1995. Mall-based retailers accounted for 22% of 2001's retail sales.
Downloading audio files onto a computer's hard drive has proven a compelling way to collect content for many music lovers. But the weak link with computer-based audio systems is finding a way to play that music on a more traditional (and typically better-sounding) audio system. With a compatible CD or DVD player, you could burn the files onto a disc, or if you have a portable device such as an iPod, you could hook it up directly to your system.
Every autumn, the <A HREF="http://www.CE.org">Consumer Electronics Association</A> (CEA) publishes its "Five Technologies to Watch" list of "technology trends poised to shape the consumer electronics industry" in the year ahead. Most of the choices may seem obvious, but the final entry on the list this year may be a surprise for audiophiles.
In <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/shownews.cgi?1758">other news</A> this week, the music business is in a tailspin, and searching for ways to save itself. The National Association of Record Merchandisers (NARM) has just published its chairman's message, with several clues about what consumers may see from the industry in the coming months.
The last few weeks have been a roller-coaster ride for CD copy-restriction developer SunnComm. The company was riding high in early September when it was <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/11734/">announced</A> that BMG and Arista had chosen its MediaMax CD-3 Technology to restrict how discs are used.
Only a few short years ago, Napster quickly took root to show the world how Internet-based audio file-trading was where music distribution's future growth might run wild. But the record labels would have none of it and just as swiftly took a legal chainsaw to Napster's trunk, laying it waste and leaving plenty of room for Kazaa and other unsanctioned services to sprout like weeds.
Readers are constantly telling us that downloaded audio files suck. I tend to agree with them.