International Audio Group (IAG) recently purchased the UK’s Mission,
adding it to their other audio companies including Quad, Wharfdale and
Audiolab. Tokyo’s D&M Holdings Inc. has closed purchase of both
speaker makers Snell Acoustics and Boston Acoustics. D&M already
owns Marantz, Denon, McIntosh, ReplayTV, Rio and Escient.
Elvis and John Lennon Top Royalties – Forbes magazine researched
a list of the top-earning dead celebrities for the past year. Elvis was
No. 1, John Lennon in No. 3 position, and other music people in the top
13 were George Harrison, Johnny Cash, Irving Berlin, Bob Marley and Ray
Charles.
Reference Records Available Again – The audiophile-level catalog
of Reference Recordings of San Francisco is once again available after
an ill-fated near-merger with now-bankrupt Dorian Group. All of their
CDs, engineered by Keith Johnson, are now available at their web site: www.ReferenceRecordings.com – with a 10% discount for orders of two or more.
Sony LocationFree Line Now Supported by PSP System – Sony has
announced that their PlayStation Portable devices will now support the
LocationFree line of products. The PSP system will access home audio
and video content via the LocationFree Base Station. The PlayStation
Portable is an all-in-one portable entertainment system for 3D games,
high-quality full-motion video, stereo audio and also to browse the
Internet. Its display is 4.3-inches wide and the storage medium is a
high-capacity optical disc. Users can now watch their favorite TV
programming, DVDs or PVR content via Wi-Fi hot spots with broadband
access.
An Epic CD Project on 40 CDs – There have been some massive
anthologies on CD in the past, such as the complete works of Bach on
Archiv, but Hyperion Records has just introduced one right up there
with the rest: Every single song by Franz Schubert on 40 CDs at a
suggested $480. The list of performers includes Felicity Lott, Dame
Janet Baker, Elly Ameling, Arlene Auger, Thomas Hampson, Lucia Popp and
many more. There are even three bonus discs of songs by Schubert’s
friends and contemporaries.
Five Top Home Audio-Video Mistakes – Mark Fleischmann has an excellent feature on the WABC-TV web site abc7online.com
Some of the best advice we’ve seen, explained at the layman’s level.
Short version: 1. Bigger is Not Necessarily Better in speakers –
minimonitors plus subwoofers are fine for HT; 2. The Big Lie – 100
Watts Per Channel! Don’t believe it; get higher efficiency speakers; 3.
7.1 is Better Than 5.1 – Wrong; don’t “junk up your room with
unnecessary back-surrounds;” 4. Flat Speakers Are Good With Flat TVs –
Not really. Keep speakers away from the walls unless you get
specially-designed in-wall units; 5. Your Equipment Is Bad if Your
System Sounds Bad – Maybe not. Could be room acoustic problems,
controllable with changing speaker placement and using
absorptive/diffusive materials. For the full story.
