Audio News for August 15, 2005

by | Aug 15, 2005 | Audio News | 0 comments

Demise of CRT TVs Greatly Exaggerated – The new
technologies of flat-panel plasma and LCD TV displays have come down in
cost but are still generally almost double the cost of the
old-fashioned cathode-ray tube (CRT) TVs which have been around since
the start of television in the 1940s. Two Korean companies – Samsung
and LG – have vowed they won’t pull the plug on conventional CRT TVs,
and in fact have developed a new somewhat flatter display that is about
1/3 less deep than most CRTs. Many videophiles feel that CRTs still
deliver the best picture, especially in being able to display blacker
blacks, which is a chore for plasma and LCD screens. Samsung as a new
slimmer 30-inch CRT at only $1000 and LG will introduce a similar one
next year. CRTs still account for 75% of TV sales in the U.S. but that
is rapidly changing as consumers are willing to pay the higher price
for thin displays they can hang on the wall. Industry observers feel
that the days of both CRT displays and NTSC (present analog) TV are
numbered.

New Classical Label Adapts to the Market – A partnership
consisting of the founder of the contemporary music label Black Box and
a VP of Marketing and Artist Development at Decca has launched a new UK
independent label named Onyx. They will work with great artists who
have proven success on both disc and on the concert platform. They will
support digital distribution as well as traditional retail; their web
site has a listening room, individual track downloads and complete
albums, along with artist profiles and interviews, tour schedules,
photos, and streaming videos. Onyx has worked out a deal with Sony-BMG
which will give it major-label distribution and access to proper
budgets.  In the U.S. Harmonia mundi will distribute the new
label. Artists represented in their September release are soprano
Barbara Bonney, The Borodin Quartet, Violinist Viktoria Mullova and
pianist Pascal Rogé.

Other Classical Label News – UK label Hyperion is facing a
million-pound bill in a copyright case they contested and will likely
lose, leading to deep cuts in their recording schedule. 
Audiophile label Reference Recordings has returned after a long and
costly legal battle struggling to divest themselves of a soured
partnership deal with now-bankrupt audiophile label The Dorian Group.
Plans are underway to reestablish the label in the music marketplace by
October, and RR has returned to its old distributor, Allegro Music.
Their last releases being re-promoted feature mezzo Frederica von
Stade, astonishing young organist Felix Hell, conductor Stanislaw
Skrowaczewski in two of his own compositions, and the University of
Texas Wind Ensemble in “Bells for Stokowski.”  Next year will be
Reference Recordings’ 30th Anniversary. The label has won many Grammy
nominations and awards.

 

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