Paul Messenger

News

The 2017 Warsaw Audio Video Show

Paul Messenger Dec 06, 2017

Poland's Audio Video Show, held in Warsaw each November and now firmly established as Europe's No.2 hi-fi event, has a very different feel from Event No.1: High End, held each May in Munich, Germany. Unlike High End's business-to-business approach, the Audio Video Show is very much for regular consumers, of whom more than 14,000 attended over the show's three days, November 1719. Boosted by a modest "Smart Home" presence, that was an increase of nearly 18% over last year's show, alongside more modest growth in the numbers of exhibitors and exhibit rooms.

News

Dieter Burmester (1946–2015)

Paul Messenger Aug 28, 2015

Photo: Paul Messenger

Dieter Burmester founded Burmester Audiosysteme GmbH in 1977 and ran it for 38 years. For me, he was the friendly face of an unusually friendly and outgoing German high-end hi-fi company. He died on August 15, and his company will badly miss him.

Historical Interviews News

William Zane Johnson 1926–2011

John Atkinson, Paul Messenger Dec 17, 2011

We were saddened to hear of the passing, on December 10,of Audio Research founder William "Bill" Zane Johnson. Bill, who founded Audio Research in 1970 and became its Chairman Emeritus in 2008, is survived by his wife Nancy (left in photo) and family. We are preparing a tribute to Bill, to be published in the March 2012 issue of Stereophile, but meanwhile, we are reprinting here an interview Paul Messenger and I conducted with Bill that was originally published in the June 1983 issue of Hi-Fi News. (My thanks to HFN editor Paul Miller for permission. Stereophile's 1994 interview with Bill can be found here.)John Atkinson

News

Focal & Naim to Merge Operations

Paul Messenger Aug 19, 2011

Summer's end is traditionally known as "the silly season" in European newsrooms, but there was nothing silly about the bombshell of a press release that arrived on the desks of hi-fi journalists on August 19. Two of Europe's most successful and best-established high-end audio brands, Focal and Naim Audio, announced that they are joining forces to create a new company, Focal & Co., under the chairmanship of Focal founder Jacques Mahul. With a combined annual earnings of nearly £50 million ($82 million), ca £31 million for Focal and ca £18 million for Naim) and more than 300 employees, Focal & Co. will automatically become a European hi-fi leader in terms of sales and resources.

News

Captain Beefheart: a Personal Memory

Paul Messenger Dec 19, 2010

The first part of a six-part BBC documentary narrated by the late John Peel

Born in January 1941, Don van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, died Friday, December 17, 2010, of complications related to multiple sclerosis.

Even though he gave up music in 1982 (beginning a successful career as a reclusive artist until hampered by the onset of multiple sclerosis), Captain Beefheart left an important and influential musical legacy.

News

Linn Abandons CD Players

Paul Messenger Nov 20, 2009

On November 19, Scottosh manufacturer Linn Products held a press conference in London to announce that it was forthwith ceasing the production of CD players, and effectively replacing them by its new DS-series "digital streaming" components in its product portfolio.

News

Meridian, Ferrari Collaborate on a One-Piece System

Paul Messenger Mar 04, 2007

Oooohh! Aaaahh! Coochy-coo! are not the usual spontaneous reactions from hard-boiled audio journalists to the unveiling of a hi-fi component. Nor is the Silverstone Circuit, the self-proclaimed Home of British Motor Racing, the usual venue for such a launch. But the news that UK audio manufacturer <A HREF="http://www.meridian.co.uk">Meridian</A> and Ferrari were cuddling up together on a joint project was enough to drag yours truly halfway across the country to deep Northamptonshire on a miserably wet February morning.

HFN 2006

Retro Drivers

Paul Messenger Sep 24, 2006

On display in the Hi-Fi News Show ballroom were classic Lowther and Voigt drivers (bottom left is an AC mains-energized field-coil Voigt).

HFN 2006

A D.T.N. Williamson Amp—in the Flesh

Paul Messenger Sep 24, 2006

Perhaps the amplifier that had the most influence on modern tube-amp design was the D.T.N Williamson, shown here in an example made by Goodsell of Brighton.

HFN 2006

A Classic—Quad's Corner Ribbon

Paul Messenger Sep 24, 2006

On display in the ballroom at the Hi-Fi News Show: an original early-'50s Corner Ribbon speaker from the Acoustical Company, later to change its name to Quad.