New High End Speaker System Features Images of Great Jazz Musicians – Teresonic LLC has introduced the Integrum Jazz Legends limited edition series of high-efficiency loudspeakers with images on the sides of one of ten great jazz musicians: Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles, Benny Goodman, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. The enclosures are designed to look like a musical instrument, and each uses a single full range Lowther driver, with no crossover to introduce phase and balance problems. Designed for highest performance with low-wattage vacuum tube equipment, the Integrums have a 101dB sensitivity, bandwidth of 30Hz to 22kHz +-3dB, and are said to set a new standard for natural, detailed sound and stereo imaging. Only ten speaker pairs will be produced in the limited edition. Details at www.teresonic.com
Warner Bros. Gives Up on Classical – Even though Warner Classics has been profitable in each of the past five years and has released more contemporary composers than other major labels, the corporate bean-counters at Warners have shut it down – leaving 40 artists which were signed to the label out in the cold. They include Daniel Barenboim, William Christie, violinist Leila Josefowitz and Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky. Warner Classics former CEO Matthew Cosgrove has reportedly gone on to an A&R position with DGG. The exit of Warner Classics – once representing Erato, Teldec, Finlandia and German Harmonia mundi – leaves only three major classical labels: Universal (DGG/Decca/Philips), EMI, and Sony/BMG. (Naxos International – the world’s largest classical label – is regarded as an independent label.)
Warner Bros. Video Filesharing Deal – In other Warner news, the BitTorrent peer-to-peer client firm has struck a content deal with Warner Bros. Entertainment to use their network to distribute movies and TV shows on the Internet. It may be the first arrangement between a file-sharing company and the entertainment industry. BitTorrent has become popular as a way to quickly transfer copyright material due partly to its decentralized nature. Video files are broken into small pieces which are then distributed to several computers. After downloading they are reassembled into a single file. The technology has attracted Hollywood’s interest as an easy way to distribute digital content. TV shows could sell for as little as one dollar – half the price of video downloads at iTunes. BitTorrent execs say the service could start this summer. One technology pundit says the process is not user-friendly and fails to meet the ease of download of iTunes’ videos.
