02 / 14 / 03
Fabreeka
is now offering their Precision-Aire HF series tabletop isolation
platforms ($3,600, air supply compressor adds $500) that provide low-frequency vibration isolation for hi-fidelity audio
equipment. The compact design of the HF series isolation table enables a working height of only four inches and will support power amplifiers, turntables and other equipment weighing
upwards of 80 lbs. The pneumatic isolators provide significant reduction of vibration and require a constant compressed air supply of no more than 50 psi. The top surface of the HF series is black, polished granite, which has better inherent damping qualities than steel. The protective shroud is available in maple, oak, cherry, black and stainless steel. The weight of the unit is only 74 lbs. The front three knobs allow for ease of adjustment to level the surface of the isolation platform. The top surface of the HF series isolation platform is black, polished granite. Fabreeka claims that Granite has better inherent damping qualities than steel, eliminating the
"ringing" or "tuning fork" effect.
02 / 13 / 03
California based Sonic Solutions
(Nasdaq:SNIC) has announced selling over three million Sonic MyDVD and DVDit! software titles. Based on the same technology as Sonic's industry-leading Hollywood DVD production systems, Sonic MyDVD and DVDit! bring home users an efficient way to create their own audio/video DVDs. The ability to simply drag-and-drop video and audio into a project, design interactive menus and record the final content to DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, DVD-RAM or CD-R/RW, Sonic's DVD applications offer
immense flexibility and compatibility. With blank CD-R discs at near giveaway prices,
blank DVD discs have come down in price dramatically over the past few years. The ability to make high-resolution audio on DVD bring music lovers greater enjoyment over lower resolution CD. "Sonic products provide a strong balance between ease of use and powerful DVD creation capabilities," said Jeff Loebbaka, Vice President and General Manager, Desktop Solutions Group at Adaptec. "As the leading provider of DVD-creation solutions for home-PC users, and the clear choice of OEMs, Sonic continues to provide us with best-of-breed products which help us to assert our leadership in providing high-quality desktop-PC solutions for home DVD creation."
02 / 12 / 03
High-end audio company Adcom, a division of Klein Technology Group, has announced new amplifiers that employ F.A.T. (Fast Analog Transform)
technology. F.A.T. said to be "designed to maximize the performance of the newest high resolution audio formats and the most demanding home theater
applications, all at mid-fi prices." New amplifiers include Adcom's seven
channel GFA-7607 ($1,500, 125 watts per channel as pictured here) and the GFA-7805
($2,400, 300 watts per channel). All new F.A.T. amplifiers include:
Power Rig™ Circuitry
New High-Current Output Devices
Discrete Monaural Power Supply for Each Channel
Huge Toroidal Transformer
Closely Matched Transistor Layout for Ultra-High Linearity
New High-Power Output Transistors
Dual-Differential Input Stage
Class A Driver Stage
12 Volt On/Of f Trigger, PCB-Mounted Gold RCA Inputs
If you felt Enjoy the Music.com's
virtually live show reports were fast, imagine being able to purchase a CD of the concert you just say only minutes after the show
ends. That is exactly what Clear Channel
Concerts, the US's biggest concert promoter, has planned for their Boston Massachusetts engagements. Clear Channel Concerts hopes are to be selling audio CD-R discs of the concert only five minutes after a live show has ended. These discs will be sold for approximately $15 at the same place patrons purchase t-shirts and other products from the band.
02 / 11 / 03
The Audio Engineering Society (AES)
has the honor of assisting in the selection of important historic recordings to be included to the National Recording Registry in Washington, DC by
The Library of Congress. The first fifty records (listed below) are said to have been chosen to to their importance aesthetically, culturally, and/or historically. Due to the desire to insure America's culture, the National Recording Registry was established by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000. "It's an honor to represent the AES on the National Recording Preservation Board," says Elizabeth Cohen of the AES. "Today's selection of the first 50 recordings to be entered in the National Recording registry ensures that America's sound recording heritage will ultimately survive and be available to the public for hundreds of years to come." The selection of sound recordings that were chosen are listed below:
"Around the World on the Phonograph," "The Pattison Waltz," "Fifth Regiment March" (1888-1889); the Jesse Walter Fewkes field recordings of the Passamaquoddy Indians (1890); "Stars and Stripes Forever" Military Band, Berliner Gramophone disc recording (1897); Lionel Mapleson cylinder recordings of the Metropolitan Opera (1900-1903); Scott Joplin ragtime compositions on piano rolls, Scott Joplin, piano (1900s); Booker T. Washington's 1895 Atlanta Exposition Speech (1906 recreation); "Vesti la giubba" from Pagliacci, Enrico Caruso (1907); "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," Fisk Jubilee Singers (1909); Lovey's Trinidad String Band recordings for Columbia Records (1912); "Tiger Rag," Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1918); "Arkansas Traveler" and "Sallie Gooden," Eck Robertson, fiddle (1922); "Down-Hearted Blues," Bessie Smith (1923); "Rhapsody in Blue," George Gershwin, piano; Paul Whiteman Orchestra (1924); Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings (1925-1928); Victor Talking Machine Company sessions in Bristol, Tennessee--Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest Stoneman, and others (1927); Harvard Vocarium record series, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, others, reciting (1930-1940s); Highlander Center Field Recording Collection. Rosa Parks, Esau Jenkins, others (1930s-1980s); Bell Laboratories experimental stereo recordings, Philadelphia Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski, conductor (1931-1932); President Franklin D. Roosevelt's radio "Fireside Chats" (1933-1944); New Music Recordings series, Henry Cowell, producer (1934-1949); Description of the crash of the Hindenburg, Herbert Morrison, reporting (1937); "Who's on First," Abbott and Costello's first radio broadcast version (1938); War of the Worlds, Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater (1938); "God Bless America," Kate Smith, Radio broadcast premiere (1938); The Cradle Will Rock, Marc Blitzstein and the original Broadway cast (1938); the John and Ruby Lomax Southern States Recording Trip (1939); Grand Ole Opry, first network radio broadcast, Uncle Dave Macon, Roy Acuff (1939); "Strange Fruit," Billie Holiday (1939); Duke Ellington Orchestra "Blanton-Webster Era" recordings (1940-1942);. Bela Bartok, piano, and Joseph Szigeti, violin, in concert at the Library of Congress (1940); Rite of Spring, Igor Stravinsky conducting the New York Philharmonic (1940); "White Christmas," Bing Crosby (1942); "This Land Is Your Land," Woody Guthrie (1944). General Dwight D. Eisenhower's D-Day radio address to the Allied Nations (1944); "Koko," Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and others (1945); "Blue Moon of Kentucky," Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys (1947); "How High the Moon," Les Paul and Mary Ford (1951); Elvis Presley's Sun Records sessions (1954-1955); Songs for Young Lovers, Frank Sinatra (1955); Dance Mania, Tito Puente (1958); Kind of Blue, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, and others (1959); "What'd I Say," parts 1 and 2, Ray Charles (1959); "I Have a Dream," speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963); Freewheelin', Bob Dylan (1963); "Respect!" Aretha Franklin (1967); Philomel: for soprano, recorded soprano, and synthesized sound, Bethany Beardslee, soprano (1971); Precious Lord: new recordings of the Great Gospel Songs of Thomas Dorsey, Thomas Dorsey, Marion Williams, and others (1973); Crescent City Living Legends Collection (WWOZ radio, New Orleans) (1973-1990); "The Message," Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (1982).
02 / 05 / 03
PSB Speakers
newest Platinum T8 Tower ($6,500 per pair) flagship loudspeaker are designed and developed by founder Paul Barton. The Platinum T8 uses seven drivers; three 8-inch woofers, two 4.5-inch woven fiberglass coned midranges, and two 1-inch aluminum-dome tweeters. One tweeter faces forward and the other (that can be enabled or disabled by use of a jumper) is rear firing. The midrange drivers and the front tweeter are placed in a D'Appolito array. The three woofers employ 40-ounce magnet structures for driver control and power handling. The midrange drivers use a 20-ounce magnet structure, while that of each tweeter is 16 ounces. The 10.4 x 46.5 x 16 (WxHxD in inches) enclosure is available in black ash or cherry, with a distinctive die-cast aluminum base, top, and side extrusions that, as in the other systems in the new series, help provide structural rigidity for reduced cabinet resonance.
02 / 04 / 03
Highly regarded high-end audio company NAD
has released their new entry level T 512 DVD/CD Player ($399). With full support for DVD-Video, CD, CD-R, CD-RW and MP-3, the T 512 also supports DTS, Dolby Digital and Pro Logic playback. Keeping signal paths short and direct to minimize any interference for the audio
signal, the video section employs a 10-bit Video DAC running at 54MHz to reproduce accurate color. The T 512 offers three video connection options (Composite, S-Video and Component) and three audio connection options (Analog RCA, Digital Coaxial and Digital Optical).
02 / 03 / 03
Meridian has
announced their new DSP7000 ($27,500.00 per pair) and support for DVI and HDMI for their 800 DVD player
($1,250). The DSP7000 model is derived from the DSP8000, yet in a smaller and more accessible
package. Featuring digital signal processing for crossover filtering and signal manipulation, each DSP7000 accepts a digital bitstream directly from a Meridian pre-amplifier, CD, DVD player, or system-controller, accommodating
bitstreams up to 24-bit/96kHz. Four 100-watt amplifiers are specifically engineered for the new system with two
amplifiers driving a pair of 8-inch long-throw bass units, another for the 6-inch midrange and yet another for the 1-inch composite-dome tweeter.
The VE11 and VE12 cards plug into the card frame in the 800 player and add DVI and HDMI digital interfaces respectively, as well as progressive video with Faroudja DCDi de-interlacing and scaling. The VE11 card provides support for the DVI Digital Visual Interface standard, supporting digital display devices including HDTV at bandwidths of 165 MHz. The VE11 provides a 480p digital output to the DVI specification. Content is protected by means of the HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) system developed for DVI by the Intel Corporation. The VE12 supports the HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface), which carries standard, enhanced or high-definition digital video and multichannel digital audio down the same digital cable, without compression. The VE12 is HDMI Phase 1 compliant, and provides a wide selection of high-definition video formats, including 480i, 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p. Also supported are two channels of PCM digital audio or bitstream formats corresponding to all the audio formats available for DVD-Video, including Dolby Digital and DTS.
02 / 01 / 03
Enjoy the Music.com
has released the February 2003 edition of their Review
Magazine. Equipment reviews include:
* Various CES / T.H.E. Show reports
* Audio Consulting's Silver Rock Transformer Potentiometer
* Coincident's Ultra High Sensitivity Triumph Signature Loudspeakers
* Jolida 202A Integrated Tube Amplifier: Sound and Sanity
* nOrh's $399 Class A Single Ended SE9 Integrated Stereo Tube Amplifier
* Powersnake Anaconda vX and Taipan Power Cord
* Uptown Horns: The New York showcase for Avantgarde Acoustic loudspeakers and Viva amplifiers
The February 2003 edition also offers many music and performance reviews
including an exclusive interview with musicians Lori Lieberman! plus various editorials. Please see the
Review Magazine by clicking here.
High-Performance Audio Reviews
