News

A new era in radio will begin on November 30, when a rocket lifts off from the Baikonur">http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/baikonur_cosmodrome_000710.html… Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying a commercial digital radio transponder to a geosynchronous orbit over North America. The satellite, which belongs to Sirius">http://www.siriusradio.com/detect_flash/index_flash.htm">Sirius Satellite Radio, will eventually beam as many as 100 stations providing "CD-quality" sound to listeners throughout the continent.

In what may be the precursor to a deluge of lawsuits against electronics manufacturers, computer giant Hewlett-Packardhttp://www.hp.com/">Hewlett-Packard; has agreed to pay fees to German music licensing organization GEMAhttp://www.gema.de/eng/index.html">GEMA; for revenue supposedly lost to piracy. Hewlett-Packard was targeted by GEMA last May, because the Palo Alto, Calfornia-based company's CD burners dominate the German market, and was originally asked to pay 30 marks ($12.90) for each unit sold in Germany since February, 1998.

Describing the Audio">http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/288/">Audio Research Reference Two preamplifier, Michael Fremer writes "Audio Research's first 21st-century, audiophile-quality line-stage preamplifier combines retro-tech vacuum-tube amplification and power-supply circuitry with innovative, remote-controlled gain, balance, tape monitoring, and signal routing. The price is also 21st-century: $9995." Worth every penny? Fremer offers his assessment.

When audiophiles speak of "imaging," they may not be using the term metaphorically. Recent research at the University of California at San Diego's School of Medicine indicates that hearing and vision are more closely related than had been previously thought.

Audiophiles are just warming up to the debate on how (or why) they should set up multi-channel audio in the home (see previous">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10849/">previous story). But perhaps the listening room will ultimately take a back seat to a more obvious choice for a multi-channel environment: the automobile. Several multi-channel products are being announced for the autosound market, including a new Fujitsu DVD player with 5.1 audio.

Investors have shown an inexplicable willingness to foot the bill for MP3.com's">http://www.mp3.com/">MP3.com's $53.4 million settlement with Universal">http://www.umusic.com/">Universal Music Group. In the four days following the announcement of a settlement on Tuesday, November 13, the now fully legitimate Internet music site watched its stock surge to four times the value it had only a month before. Shares of MP3.com closed Friday, November 17 at $9.42 each, triple the per-share price on the morning of the announcement. The stock had sunk to a 52-week low of $2.50 per share on October 11.

When CDs were becoming popular, Neil Young made no secret of his disdain for the sound of digital. Interviews from the period quoted him as saying that the sound "left him cold," and he would rather listen to an LP, thank you very much. To this day, his new CD releases also appear on vinyl, but with the advent of DVD-Audio, sampling and quantization rates have improved—enough, apparently for Mr. Young's approval.