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Industry Roundup

Barry Willis May 10, 2004 First Published: May 10, 2004

Nowhere is the inflationary cycle spinning faster than in concert ticket prices. The best tickets for performances by major pop and rock stars this summer will be priced in the low-to-mid hundreds. No, that's not a misprint, and it doesn't include "service charges" and other bogus fees tacked on by ticket agencies. Good seats for Eric Clapton's summer tour will be more than $250 each; similar seating at Simon and Garfunkel's "Old Friends" show at the Hollywood Bowl will go for $700, according to "Parsley, Sage and $350 Seats," a revealing look at skyrocketing ticket prices by Ethan Smith in the May 7 issue of The Wall Street Journal.

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Added to the Archives This Week

Stereophile Staff May 03, 2004 First Published: May 04, 2004

From the April 2004 issue, a must-read for all audiophiles: Keith Howard does the SACD and DVD-Audio math for "New">http://www.stereophile.com/features/404metrics">New Media Metrics." Using a vast collection of informative graphs, KH explores hi-rez attributes and puzzlers. "In the case of SACD, why provide a potential bandwidth in excess of 1.4MHz, only to fill more than 95% of it with quantization noise?"

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iTunes vs the Listening Room

Jon Iverson May 03, 2004 First Published: May 04, 2004

Stereophile readers are clearly in favorhttp://cgi.stereophile.com/cgi-bin/showvote.cgi?327">favor; of our coveragehttp://www.stereophile.com/digitalsourcereviews/934/">coverage; of products like Apple's iPod. But judging by some of the comments we receive, they're split on whether it's been a kick in the pants for music lovers or just added to the downward low-rez spiral of digital audio.

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Hearing Loss & Audio Pros

Barry Willis May 03, 2004 First Published: May 03, 2004

Have you ever been to a rock concert and come away mumbling, "Those engineers must be deaf"? After enduring three hours of an all-out sonic assault, you were probably just a tad cranky, but the facts are that those engineers probably were deaf, or well on their way.

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Dolby Joins Hall of Fame

Barry Willis May 03, 2004 First Published: May 03, 2004

It's safe to say that few audio engineers are more famous than Ray Dolby. On May 1, the founder and chairman of Dolby">www.dolby.com">Dolby Laboratories was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio, joining such luminaries as Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, and Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb and the phonograph.

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Ultimate AV Launched

Stereophile Staff May 02, 2004 First Published: May 02, 2004

Last week, Primedia announced the next in a series of editorial upgrades to its Home Technology & Photography specialty group. The group is redesigning its Stereophile Guide to Home Theater magazine to become Stereophile Ultimate AV (new URL: www.ultimateavmag.comhttp://www.ultimateavmag.com">www.ultimateavmag.com;) starting with the June 2004 issue. Hitting newsstands May 11, the redesigned magazine will feature 16 pages of new and expanded editorial content for high-end audio/video enthusiasts, more advertisers, and an enhanced consumer-friendly design.

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Gear Shop Opens

Wes Phillips Apr 26, 2004 First Published: Apr 26, 2004

We were startled to receive an email announcement recently informing us that Scot Markwell, long-time set-up and equipment maven for The Abso!ute Sound's erstwhile editor Harry Pearson, had joined the staff at www.themusic.comhttp://www.themusic.com">www.themusic.com; to manage its Gear Shop division.

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HE2004 Seminars Announced

Stereophile Staff Apr 26, 2004 First Published: Apr 26, 2004

The Home Entertainment 2004 Show (HE2004) is coming to NYC May 20–23, 2004 at the Hilton New York Hotel & Towers. HE2004 is open to the public—consumers will not only have the opportunity to see, hear, and demo the finest high-performance products consumer electronics has to offer, they can also attend a dozen free educational seminars on a variety of topics and enjoy live music daily from jazz and blues artists during relaxing breaks for lunch. The educational seminars and music luncheons will be offered all three days of the Show. Seminars will be moderated by some of the consumer electronics industry's most respected editors, manufacturers, and custom-installation professionals.

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Added to the Archives This Week

Stereophile Staff Apr 26, 2004 First Published: Apr 26, 2004

Paul Bolin revisits planet Halcro to review the company's dm10">http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/404halcro">dm10 preamplifier. As PB notes, "After designing an amplifier that turned much of the audio world on its head, Halcro's head honcho, Bruce Candy, turned his attention to developing a preamplifier to match what he'd already wrought."

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Industry Roundup

Barry Willis Apr 26, 2004 First Published: Apr 26, 2004

"Clean Slate" ends: As of early April, the US music industry no longer offers amnesty to confessed downloaders. Begun in September by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the "Clean Slate" program's intent was to discourage music fans from continuing to gather freebies online by promising exemption from copyright infringement lawsuits if they signed statements that they had removed shared music files from their computers. More than 1100 music fans signed, but Eric Parke of Novato, CA sought an injunction against the program on the grounds that it was a "fraudulent business practice." The RIAA responded by halting the amnesty effort and asked the judge in the case to dismiss Parke's lawsuit. Trade group officials promised to uphold their part of the bargain for those who signed.