High-End Audio Industry News

01 / 31 / 06

Following our new issue of Superior Audio, we now have the February Review Magazine online. Our headline article helps the industry save thousands of dollars if they plan to attend a show in Los Angeles. New equipment reviewed includes Blue Circle BC501 DAC, the MartinLogan Summit loudspeaker, and Welborne Laboratories' 300B DRD SET monoblock amplifiers. We also have a look back at some great past shows including the Vacuum State Of The Art Conference And Show 2003 plus the Philadelphia Tube Audio Show. Steven Stone's The Nearfield covers CEA's survey news & the PS Audio GCC-100 plus Bel Canto's S-300. To see the February edition of our Review Magazine click here.

 

01 / 30 / 06

  The February issue of Superior Audio in now online with a very special, new format. In this issue we feature a single manufacturer, Clearaudio. Virtually every audiophile who enjoys analog has heard of Clearaudio, and may personally have owned one of more of their products. We invite you to enjoy this very special edition and learn how one man has single-handedly brought joy to tens of thousands of music lovers. To see the February edition of Superior Audio click here.

 

01 / 27 / 06

  Today is Wolfgang Amadé Mozart's birthday, as he was born in 1756 and lived until December 1791 at the age of 35. During his relatively short life he jokily called himself Amadeus from 1773 onward and composed numerous classic pieces. As a child prodigy, he toured Europe and had written over 30 symphonies, 9 operas, various violin concertos, plus various sonatas by the age of 20. His earliest of works include Andante for flute & orchestra in C major, K. 315 (K. 285e) Flute Concerto Concerto and Ave verum Corpus, motet for chorus, strings & organ, K. 618 Motet Choral. In 1775 he worked hard to write various violin concertos, and a decade later (1785) Mozart concentrated his efforts on the piano and wrote Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466 Piano Concerto Concerto and Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major ("Elvira Madigan") K. 467 Piano Concerto Concerto. His last piece written, Requiem in D minor (K. 626), was unfinished by Mozart himself though was completed by one of his pupils. Wolfgang Amadé Mozart's body was blessed at Crucifix Chapel of St. Stephen's and was later put to rest in the cemetery at St. Marx. We wish Mozart a happy birthday as his music lives on for generation after generation to enjoy. Enjoy the music!

 

01 / 26 / 06

  Linn's Artikulat loudspeakers are now available in either fully active and passive plus active bass configuration. The Artikulat system consists of sonically and aesthetically matched loudspeakers that feature Linn's active servo bass, 3-K driver array and the new Linn Chakra power amplification. Three full range models consisting of the 350A floorstanding and 320A compact (pictured here), plus the 340A center channel. All of the models in the Artikulat system are built around complex pressure-formed natural laminate cabinets to form an exceptionally rigid construction. As for drivers, the 350A floorstanding model includes Linn's enhanced Linn 3-K driver array with sandwich cone upper bass driver, plus two multi-bias long throw servo-driven bass drivers. Included is a staggering 1,750 watts of integrated Linn Chakra cool-running 'Silent-Power' amplification.

 

01 / 25 / 06

  tmh audio is now offering Italy's New Audio Frontiers single-ended 'Class A' triode amplification. While there are 6 models using the 845 output tube, seen here is the Stereo 845 ($13,000) that produces 20 watts per channel with a frequency response from 20Hz to 40kHz. Features include zero feedback, self-biasing, tube rectification using 5R4GY, hand-wired (Litz) transformers, and audiophile-grade internal components. Other models include a Special Edition ($15,000) that produces 25 watts per channel and has copper/silver transformers.

 

01 / 24 / 06

  Online music sales have reached amazing figures as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the organization that promotes the interests of the international recording industry worldwide with membership comprising of over 1450 major and independent companies in more than 75 countries, reports that digital music in 2006 grew to over 2 million songs online with sales reaching impressive results. Mobile music revenues earned $400 million with $1.1 billion for record companies, this is up from $380 in 2004. How big is the worldwide sales of music you ask? Like online audiophile magazine where music lovers worldwide benefit, music fans worldwide downloaded 420 million single tracks and accounts for a multiple of twenty times more than only 2 years earlier. According to the IFPI, digitally downloaded music now "accounts for 6 percent of record companies' revenues, up from practically zero two years ago." IFPI Chairman and CEO, John Kennedy, said "Two years ago, few could have predicted the extraordinary developments we are seeing in the digital music business today. And there will be further significant growth in 2006 as the digital music market continues to take shape. Already in the UK and Germany - two of the biggest digital markets worldwide - legal buyers from sites like iTunes, Musicload and MSN actually exceed illegal file-swappers."

 

01 / 23 / 06

  Escalante Design's has just released their new two-way monitor loudspeaker called The Fremont. This two-way, direct coupled full range design uses a pair of 12 inch woofers and modified ScanSpeak Revelator R2904 tweeter to reproduce frequencies from 18Hz to 50kHz. While one of the woofers are clearly visible, the other acts in tandem with a specially modified dust cap to cover bass and midrange frequencies. Sensitivity is 93dB/W/m, it presents an 8 Ohms load, and dimensions are 28.5 x 14 x 18 (HxWxD in inches).

 

01 / 20 / 06

  Lamm Industries, now celebrating the company's 10^th anniversary with their new M1.2 Reference monoblock amplifier. This new unit is the result in years of intensive research with pure 'Class A' amplification featuring high-speed MOS-FET transistors in the output stage with no overall feedback. Special switch-selectable bias/voltage settings insure precise operation for 8- or 4-Ohm loudspeakers. The M1.2 Reference is a hybrid design with one specially selected 6922 vacuum triode in the second stage and total power output is rated at 110 watts. Each amplifier is hand-crafted with military graded low noise DALE metal film resistors; PRC wire wound resistors; Electrocube and Roderstein film capacitors; high frequency switching grade Cornell Dubilier electrolytic capacitors plus other top grade parts. Connectors include high quality gold-plated binding posts and RCA jacks; gold-plated Neutric XLR connectors, and Camac-type coaxial connectors from Fischer.

 

01 / 19 / 06

  Today we get a glimpse of the Althea Musica's Cardinale turntable ($33,500) in final prototype version, the final version will have aluminum platter while drive unit motor and tone arm base will be piano black lacquer. This high mass turntable uses a string drive and each piece of the table is completely separated. These modules eliminate influences between the base, tonearm, and motor drive. The Plinth is said to be a highly stable drive unit containing special calculated, inter-balanced chambers to eliminate resonances. The platter itself is tooled by Alcoa, the same company that manufacturers automobile chassis for such firms as Ferrari. An outboard power supply contains intelligent motor controller for adjusting speeds between 33.3, 45 or 78 rpm.

 

01 / 18 / 06

  Vacuum Tube Valley will have their huge VTV Audiophile and Music Expo in Los Angeles on June 3 & 4, 2006 at the LAX Embassy Suites. Vendors can save many thousands of dollars versus another LA show by contacting Charlie Kittleson. Music enthusiasts can enjoy discounted admission rate of only $10 with coupon requested by e-mail. Those who desire purchasing highly desirable rare vinyl and vintage tubes or equipment can enjoy a VIP/Early Bird Buyer Pass for $70 that gets you in at 7:30am, a full 90 minutes before the gate opens to the general public.

 

01 / 17 / 06

  While our live coverage of both the CES 2006 and THE Show is now online, today we have added a new report by Dick Olsher. With three pages and over thirty photos, this report is one of the many that will be added in the coming weeks from Enjoy the Music.com^® staff.

 

01 / 16 / 06

  It appears that the Blu-Ray format is already bringing in the niche recording labels as Metexas is heralding in their newest releases that are "Blu-ray ready HD Ultra High Resolution Recordings on standard DVD." The Kostas Metaxas Recordings label is a co-production between Kostas Metaxas and exceptional musicians which has a 50/50 revenue share basis. Originating from 1/4" tape and stereo mic'ed in AB with the company's "reference microphones" - omni-directional Bruel & Kjaer 4135's fed directly into one of three [or a Stellavox TD9] portable heavily "Metaxas-modified" Stellavox SM8 recorder running at15ips tape speeds -- this is how they may have been recorded in the 1960's during the "Golden Years" of recordings. Metaxas says, "With DVD-Audio there is no compromise in combining Video and Music and is the main reason we have decided to use this medium. There is no equivalent video/audio standard for SACD." New releases include Mike Nock Trio, Julien Wilson Trio, Daniel Gassin Trio, Aaron Searle Quintet and others. All have been recorded in HD video at1920 X 1080i in 16:9 aspect ratio.

 

01 / 13 / 06

  Canada's Festival Son & Image has now enlarged their horizons to become The Home Entertainment and Electronics Show. Audio and video products will be augmented by other consumer electronics including electronic gaming, digital photography and related accessories. The 2006 show will operate from March 24th through the 26th at Montreal's Sheraton Centre at 1201 Rene-Levesque Boulevard West. This new venue will allow for a more centralized exhibition space with train and subway access for visitors plus 40,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space. An additional 100 furniture-free rooms spread out on four floors will be available for conversion to listening and viewing rooms for a total of 90,000 sq. ft.

 

01 / 12 / 06

  On January 8^th Hiroyasu Kondo, founder of Audio Note Japan, passed away peacefully in his sleep while attending T.H.E. Show / CES in Las Vegas after a long battle with illness. Hiroyasu Kondo, the second son of a Buddhist priest, was a professor of electronic engineering and molecular metallurgy. He founded Audio Note in Japan in 1976 with the desire to develop audio equipment capable of reproducing the essence of artistic performance captured in recorded music. He was often referred to as the "silver smith" for his revolutionary use of age annealed silver in his audio equipment. The Kondo Ongaku amplifier will forever be a symbol of his success. Hiroyasu Kondo is survived by his wife, Kazuko; his son, Yuji; and his daughter, Hisae.

 

01 / 03     to    01 / 08

  With our extensive pre-event report of both the CES 2006 and THE Show online, live coverage will begin January 5^th and updated daily through January 8^th. There are already over three pages filled with many previews of what will be seen, with daily updates beginning the very first day of the show! After the show, Enjoy the Music.com^® will be adding reports from various staff members. We already have world premiers online with our preview and you can expect to see many more new products in the upcoming days! Home theater and surround sound enthusiasts should also check out our sister publication Enjoy the Cinema.com as we have more previews and plan to have daily live coverage of both shows.

 

01 / 02 / 06

  Enjoy the Music.com's January issue of both Superior Audio and Review Magazine are now online! Superior Audio includes Hansen Audio's THE KING loudspeakers, WAVAC's EC-300B amplifier, and a follow-up article concerning the Consonance Cyber 211 monoblocks. The Review Magazine covers Singlepower Audio's MPX-3 headphone amplifier, Tonian Laboratories TL-R1 tweeter, and revisits of the Ray Samuels Audio Emmeline XR-2 phono preamplifier, Mark Levinson 390S CD processor, and Furman Sound's IT-Reference Discrete Symmetrical AC power source. Of course we also have many music reviews and editorials. See the January issue of our Review Magazine by clicking here and Superior Audio by clicking here.

It is with great pleasure we present Enjoy the Cinema.com. Most audiophile have multi-channel audio systems to support DVD-Audio, DTS, Dolby Digital... or Sony's proprietary SACD format. While Enjoy the Music.com^® reaches out to new audio and multi-zone digital music distribution systems and technologies, Enjoy the Cinema.com™ will be geared towards home theater devices. The official launch date is planned for early February, though we already have some great information posted including news articles, manufacturers links, and more! Please visit Enjoy the Cinema.com^® and let us know what you think.

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