Audio News for February 1, 2008

Free Legal Downloading – The established music industry, after years of fighting and suing proponents of free downloaded online music, has welcomed former enemy Kazaa as a possible solution to their reduced sales of physical CDs. The idea is to give their music away, without any DRM (Digital Rights Management), and make money via advertising on the sites instead. This was a major subject at the annual MIDEM music biz conference in Cannes, France, just ended. The latest venture online, supported by advertising, is called Qtrax.  Sony/BMG was the last major music company to start selling their music online without DRM; now the question is how many of them will sign up with Qtrax. Universal and EMI are in discussion now.

Register Your New Electronics – If you added any digital goodies to your possessions as a result of the holidays, don’t forget to protect them from loss and damage. Make sure your insurance covers all your gear – especially those mobile units you take out of your home. The best coverage figure to use is the replacement cost, rather than the actual cash value of an item. Don’t forget to mail in all your registrations and warranties. You may be able to save some effort by doing it online if that is offered. If you don’t do this and the company launches a recall on an item, you will be out of luck. The registrations all require the serial number, so be sure to keep a record of that separately – you would also need it if the item is stolen. Keep a list of all your AV and computer equipment, and support it with still photos or a videotape and put the whole thing in your bank box.  Some gadgets now let you enter your own contact information in the unit digitally.  You could also put a Read Me file with your information on memory cards for cameras or computers. There is a special STOP tag (Security Tracking of Office Property) which can be purchased for about $25; it can return recovered items to you.  There is encryption software available to protect the data on your laptop, as well as tracking software which sends a signal when a stolen laptop is connected to the Net, helping police to locate it.

Mini Component System Shines – A hit at the recent CES was a new Korean-made high end mini component system from April Music. The Stello stack is targeted for younger users in dorms, apartments or offices and matches high end sonics with reasonable pricing. There is a transport for $695, a D-to-A for $895, a combination preamp and headphone amp for $595 and a 50w power amp for $745.  The small components are interconnected using an I2S bus, as with the D-A processors formerly from Audio Alchemy.