West Coast Home Entertainment Show 2006 – has been scheduled by the Primedia Home Technology Group for June 1 thru 4 at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel at the Los Angeles Airport. Over 250 brands will be exhibited during the four-day show on four floors, plus ten concerts and more than a dozen seminars and workshops. Details on HES at: www.he2006.com
New Showcase Dealership for Home Electronics – The HiFi House Home-cutting in Wilmington, Delaware. The new concept store features the most advanced home entertainment technology including the world’s largest LCD display (65 inches), the world’s largest Sony rear projection TV (70 inches), one-of-a-kind Seura TV Mirror (when turned off it appears to be a decorative mirror), a whole store Crestron smart home system, and Krell’s top-of-line Evolution Series audio system. In building the new store a $50,000 cork floor was installed for acoustic enhancement.
More Remastered Quad Recordings on SACD – PentaTone has extended and expanded its license agreement with the Universal Music Group to release a further 25 quadraphonic SACD from the Philips Classics catalog. This is the only SACD series of historical recordings in true surround sound, since the Living Stereo and Mercury Living Presence SACDs are only 2 or 3-channel recordings. PentaTone has use of the original master tapes made in the early 1970s for possible quad release, but Philips decided that vinyl technology was not successful enough for their release at that time. Specially-designed equipment is used in the remastering to obtain the highest possible quality. Just two of the 2006 quad releases: Puccini’s complete Tosca conducted by Colin Davis and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony conducted by Bernard Haitink.