News

CBGB Last Hurrah?

Wes Phillips Feb 21, 2005 First Published: Feb 21, 2005

CBGB, the legendary Bowery club frequently cited as the birthplace of America's punk movement, is the latest in a growing list of urban nightclubs getting priced out of the neighborhoods they helped create. According to a February 11 article in The Village Voice, CBGB's lease will end in August, and its landlord wants to see the club's monthly rent increase from $20,000 to $40,000.

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An Audiophile Sampler

Jon Iverson Feb 21, 2005 First Published: Feb 21, 2005

One of the hot items audiophiles were able to score at last month's 2005 CES was a hybrid SACD that Ray Kimber was handing out. Labelled IsoMike Tests 2005A, the disc is beautifully packaged and sports dozens of recorded snippets of vocal music, string quartet, piano, marching band, orchestra, blank pistol, and a local janitor.

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Jimmy Smith: 1928–2005

Wes Phillips Feb 14, 2005 First Published: Feb 14, 2005

We were saddened to learn that the great jazz organist Jimmy Smith died in his sleep on February 8. He was 76.

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Industry Update

Wes Phillips Feb 14, 2005 First Published: Feb 14, 2005

EMI drops: The EMI Group, the British music company, sent its stock prices plummeting 16% with its announcement last week that sales for the fiscal year ending next month would be as much as 9% below those of last year.

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Wonder Chip?

Wes Phillips Feb 14, 2005 First Published: Feb 14, 2005

At last week's International Solid-State Circuits Conference, IBM, Toshiba, and Sony unveiled details of their new Cell processor chip—a device that The New York Times proclaimed would create "a new digital computing ecosystem that includes Hollywood, the living room and high-performance scientific and engineering markets."

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Paid Downloads Jump

Jon Iverson Feb 14, 2005 First Published: Feb 14, 2005

On the face of it, 99¢ per track low-rez music downloads don't seem like a good deal. For the same price, or maybe even less, you can get an entire CD of the same music, along with a booklet, and without the Digital Rights Management crippleware that hobbles paid downloads.

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Analog Anxiety

Jon Iverson Feb 07, 2005 First Published: Feb 07, 2005

Within the confines of the cozy analog audiophile kingdom, things couldn't be better: Turntables, cartridges and phono preamps can be found in abundance, while mounds of new and used vinyl can be scored by the truckload.

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RIAA Ups & Downs

Wes Phillips Feb 07, 2005 First Published: Feb 07, 2005

As 2004 wound down, the Los Angeles sheriff's department successfully conducted five simultaneous raids on illegal CD replication plants in southern California on December 15. Dubbed "Operation Final Release," the joint operation between the Southern California High Tech Task Force and the LA sheriff's department put 65 officers into action, closing down five optical disc replication facilities in LA and Orange counties suspected of churning out millions of pirated CDs, which were sold throughout the United States.

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Hearing Loss and You

Wes Phillips Feb 07, 2005 First Published: Feb 07, 2005

If you're an audiophile, the words "hearing loss" are bound to strike terror into your heart. Of course, many of us aren't preternaturally acute—and all of us lose some high-frequency sensitivity as we age—but there's no excuse for not taking care of what you've got. When it comes to hearing, more is always better.

News

HE2005: The Great Debate

Stereophile Staff Feb 07, 2005 First Published: Feb 07, 2005

Some say it dates back 50 years, to when the late David Hafler introduced a tube amplifier with a "better-sounding" ultralinear output stage. Others claim it goes back to the introduction of electrical recording and playback in 1927, when Gramophone magazine's founder and editor, author Sir Compton McKenzie, thundered that electrical reproduction was a step backward in sound quality. But whenever it started, the "Great Debate" between "subjectivists," who hear differences between audio components, and "objectivists," who tend to ascribe such differences to the listeners' over-heated imaginations, rages just as strongly in the 21st century as it did in the 20th.