David Smith, 1951-2006
I was saddened to hear of the untimely death of David Smith, vice-president of audio engineering and R&D at Sony Music Studios in New York. David, who was 55, died Saturday June 17, at the home of his mother on Long Island.
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That Analog Hole—Again?
It's baaack!
Industry Update
NaimNet: On June 20, at the London CEDIA Expo, Naim announced its entry into the custom integration/home systems market with a series of products and technologies called NaimNet. NaimNet is described as "a combination of Naim's experience in audio and video together with the IP technology of StreamNet™ licensed from NetStreams® LLC."
Industry Update
Hansen Audio: Canadian loudspeaker manufacturer Hansen Audio, best known for "high-end luxury lifestyle speakers," has named Wes Bender senior director of US sales and marketing.
The Next Big Thing?
When I visitedhttp://stereophile.com/news/051506nht/">visited; NHT's manufacturing facility in early May, I was struck by a comment managing director Chris Byrne made when describing NHT's Xd">http://stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/1105nht/">Xd loudspeaker, which employs sophisticated digital signal processing (DSP) for its crossovers and equalization functions. "You do realize that we could have never incorporated such complex slopes in a physical crossover," Byrne proselytized.
Telarc Scores Big
Classical music in general, and audiophile label Telarc in particular, scored big in this year's annual Outmusic Awards. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici, whose music has recently found an ardent champion in conductor Robert Spano, won Outstanding New Recording: Instrumental for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's Telarc recording of Paul Revere's Ride. Telarc veteran and Grammy Award-winning producer Thomas C. Moore, who assisted in the recording, received the Outstanding Producer award. In addition, soprano Melissa Fogarty received Outstanding New Recording: Debut Female for Handel: Scorned & Betrayed (Albany Records).
Billy Preston: 1946–2006
Billy Preston, the keyboard player, singer, and songwriter frequently credited as "the fifth Beatle," died June 6 in Scottsdale, AZ from respiratory complications from improperly treated pericarditas he experienced in an LA hospital visit on November 21, 2005.
Genesis Advanced Technologies and Arnie Nudell Part Ways
On June 6, as we traveled back from HE">http://blog.stereophile.com/he2006/">HE 2006, we received near simultaneous press releases from Genesis Advanced Technologies and Arnie Nudell describing the same event.
Sony BMG Root Kit Settlement Approved
On Monday, May 22, federal judge Naomi Reice Buchwald granted final approval to the settlement of the class action suit brought against Sony BMG for embedding intrusive and crippling digital rights management (DRM) software into its CDs. Not only did the software load secretly onto users' computers, it opened them to malware invasions, in addition to reportedly sending Sony information about consumers' computers.
Hans Fantel: 1922–2006
It was announced this week that Hans Fantel, a founding editor of Stereo Review and long-time consumer electronics columnist at The New York Times, died in early May from injuries sustained in a automobile accident.