Classical News – South Korea’s Seoul Philharmonic and North Korea’s State Symphony have agreed to hold regular joint concerts in each other’s countries. Problem is, neither has cleared that plan with its respective government. Bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff has cancelled a concert in Vienna next week due to “a very stubborn case of laryngitis.” Fabio Luisi has been promoted from principal guess conductor to principal conductor at the Met Opera due to James Levine canceling his entire fall schedule. However, Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera is miffed at Luisi leaving it in the lurch for the Met. Leading up to the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Daniel Barenboim will conduct his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in the complete Beethoven Symphony cycle during the BBC Proms concerts. It will be the first time in over 60 years that the entire nine symphonies have been performed at the Proms.
Best Buy Earnings Fall 30% – Q2 profits for the Best Buy chain fell 30%, even though their online sales rose by 13%. Declines were seen in TVs, gaming, digital imaging and physical media. But there was a 4% increase in subscription services for the quarter.
Channel Master TV Offers Subscription-Free HDTV Service – Channel Master TV enables free over-the-air (OTA) reception of HD broadcasts while adding full DVR functionality including the ability to pause, rewind and record live TV. Users can store and manage personal media content and access web content thru VUDU for On Demand movies and TV shows. The OTT (over-the-top-TV) content includes AP News, MTV news and is growing. They point out that many consumers think they need a cable provider to enjoy HDTV. They provide an antenna (purchased separately) for free OTA broadcasts of the major networks, based on regionality. They can be watched on analog or digital TVs without monthly fees. The DVR has a 320GB HDD, and users can watch one program while recording another. There is no monthly charge for the DVR, integrated web TV content or free local broadcast TV. The Channel Master TV has a SRP of $399.
New Custom Speaker Brands at CEDIA – Among the new names and technologies that showed up at the recent CEDIA Expo were Krell, GoldenEar and Savant—who launched their first architectural speakers, Monitor Audio with bezel-less speakers and Niles and SpeakerCraft, who expanded their line of bezel-less speakers. Solus-Clements unveiled the first in-wall and ceiling speakers using its H-PAS bass-extension technology, and Phase Technology showed 16-ohm installed speakers which allow installers to run multiple speakers in parallel. Some in-wall speakers feature pivoting tweeters and/or positioning of the tweeters ahead of the woofers for time alignment.
New Tube Amp Company Formed – Audio inventor Bob Carver and home automation’s Bob Farinelli have formed a vaccum tube amplifier company called Bob Carver LLC, based in Lexington, KY. The two founders came out of retirement to join forces to found the new business, whose initial products are the 180w Cherry and the 305w Black Beauty, at $3700 and $6450, which will ship next month.
AUDIO NEWS FOR WEEK OF SEPT. 4TH – BY JOHN SUNIER
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