Krell Gets Tough
Consumers prefer to get a good deal, and dealers like to maintain a healthy profit margin. Somewhere in the relationship is a perfect balance, where buyers get a legitimate product for the best price while dealers make enough money to ensure that the customer can be supported properly.
Krell Working to Resume Operations
On August 29, 2024, Wm. R. Kennedy Buhler, aka Wil Buhler, informed Krell dealers, distributors, and customers that Krell is well on the path to reopening.
Krell, Conrad-Johnson, McIntosh, and Parasound For Sale Online?
Treading the fine line between authorized retailers and the used equipment market, New Jersey online retailer WorldExchange.comhttp://www.world-exchange.com">WorldExchange.com; announced last week that it has launched a consumer electronics shopping Web site that offers "deep discounts" on a broad array of mid to high-end audio/video components whose manufacturers, the company says, normally adhere to "restricted distribution and price-maintenance policies."
Krell's forthcoming KSA-i400 Power Amplifier
Mansour Mamaghani, founder and managing director of Audio Reference Munich (above), quietly commandeered one of the largest showrooms in the MOC's Atrium to present an impressive living color array of components that extended far beyond Wilson, D'Agostino, Perlisten, VTL, Nordost, VPI, and Krell. Although sonics were far from ideal during the press conferenceVTL's pairing with Wilson and Nordost fared bestI finally got the lowdown on Krell's forthcoming 160lb. KSA-i400 power amplifier (below; $35,000 in stereo, or $70,000/monoblock pair) from Krell's COO, Walter Schofield. A matching preamp ($TBD) is in the works.
Label Panic in the Year 2007
In a week in which Radiohead released non-DRM digital files of its new recording, In">http://www.stereophile.com/news/100807radiohead/">In Rainbows, for whatever price consumers felt obliged to pay, and Madonna and Nine Inch Nails both announced they were going to release their own music without help from record labels, two of the big four labels had drastically different reactions to the new realities of music distribution.
Labels Sue www.allofmp3.com
A cabal of record labels—including Arista Records, Warner Bros., Capitol, and BMG—have taken legal action against the Russian music site allofmp3.comhttp://www.allofmp3.com/>allofmp3.com;, charging that the site offers their music without having received permission. The suit, filed in federal court in New York, is only the latest step in the war against the Russian digital download site.
Labels Win $220,000 in Download Damages
On October 4, a federal jury in Duluth, MN found Jammie Thomas liable for copyright infringement, imposing a damages assessment of $220,000 ($9250 for each of 24 songs). It was the first jury trial resulting from the series of lawsuits the recording industry began in September 2003. Since most of those suits were settled out of court (average settlement: $4000) or defaulted, Capitol Records v. Thomas was the rare case to actually go to court and in front of a jury. It was interesting in ways other than its seemingly high damages.
LAOC and Evolution AV Present: GoldenEar and Cary Audio
GoldenEar's Aon 2 (right) and Aon 3 (left).
Sunday, April 22, 2-5pm: The Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society will hold its monthly meeting at Evolution Audio Video (5341 Derry Avenue #S, Agoura Hills, CA). The event includes presentations from Dave Kakenmaster, Western Region Sales Manager for GoldenEar, as well as Tony Weber, Sales Manager at Cary Audio, as well as a mega-raffle with stupendous prizes.Larry Archibald, Stereophile's publisher emeritus, leaves the magazine
I am sad to say that Larry Archibald's "The Final Word" column in the November issue, postedhttp://www.stereophile.com//thinkpieces/161/">posted; this week in this website's "Archives" section, is his last. When Larry, Stereophile's publisher emeritus, resigned from his salaried position at Emap Petersen at the end of June, he and I had envisaged him continuing to contribute "The Final Word" to the magazine.