News

It's been no secret that leading British speaker brand Mission was up for sale—the situation had been spelled out last fall in the Annual Report of parent company NXT plc. NXT is busy pioneering its new flat-panel speaker technology, and shareholder interests were clearly not being well served by "carrying" for any length of time a box-speaker brand whose recent financial reports had been mostly in the red.

British loudspeaker manufacturer Missionhttp://www.mission.co.uk">Mission; has announced a major marketing push into North America with the launch of its new distribution arm, Mission">http://www.mission-usa.com">Mission U.S.A. The company, founded in 1977 and noted for using one of the first polypropylene-cone drivers in 1978, had been distributing its products in the US through Denon Canada.

The sales picture has improved for Tweeter Home Entertainment Group, but not the bottom line. The Canton, MA–based retailer reported a 4% increase in sales for the second quarter ended March 31, with comparable store results up 3%. The increase lifted Tweeter's total revenue to $189.3 million, but the company reported an operating loss of $4.6 million, almost twice the $2.5 million loss posted in the same period the previous year.

At the recently concluded SAE-CEA Digital Car Conference in Detroit, representatives of the recording industry joined Panasonichttp://www.panasonic.com">Panasonic; for a DVD-Audio love-fest hailing the format as the "in-car music delivery system of the future." Panasonic's automotive electronics division used the conference and exhibition to introduce and demonstrate its first mobile DVD-Audio systems for OEM distribution. The company also hosted seminars exploring how it imagines DVD-Audio will specifically apply to and benefit the automobile industry.

Slow beginnings are sometimes the most successful. Months after its acquisitionhttp://www.stereophile.com/news/11033/">acquisition; by Chicago-based Music">http://www.amusicdirect.com">Music Direct, legendary audiophile record label Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab plans to release Super Audio Compact Discs this winter.

There's a certain commercial symbiosis between audio companies and public performance spaces. Tokyo has its Yamaha">http://www.yamaha-hall.co.jp/">Yamaha Hall; New York has its Avery Fisher Hall (1http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/abram/abram.html">1;, 2http://www.lincolncenter.org/visitor/halldescriptions_afh.asp?ws=">2;), named for the hi-fi pioneer whose products were among the best available in the early 1960s.

Salon Son & Image, the annual open-to-the-public Montréal Hi-Fi Show sponsored by Stereophile, is almost upon us. Scheduled for March 31–April 3 in Montréal's centrally located Hilton Bonaventure Hotel—Thursday March 31 is for trade and press only—the largest consumer audio show in North America has been planned with the audiophiles of tomorrow in mind. . . . For the real skinny, watch this website for comprehensive show blog coverage provided by Robert Deutsch, Art Dudley, and John Atkinson.