Will Porn Decide the Latest Format War?
For far longer than I've been attending the January Consumer Electronics Show (CES), it has overlapped with the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo. Indeed, in the old days when the high-end portion of CES was housed in the Sahara hotel and casino, the two shows shared the same venue, leading to one of the more bizarre culture collisions known to modern man (one was certainly never in doubt as to who was there for which show).
Will Watermarking Really Work?
Mastering engineer Denny Purcell let out a long sigh. "Does anyone in this room really believe that any of this is going to do any good?" he asked. Of the eight or nine people—each with decades of experience in the music and/or audio industries—hanging out at Georgetown Masters Studios in Nashville for SDMI's Phase II listening tests, no one said "Yes." The consensus: The watermarking issue will probably be dead and forgotten within a year.
William Zane Johnson 1926–2011
We were saddened to hear of the passing, on December 10,of Audio Research founder William "Bill" Zane Johnson. Bill, who founded Audio Research in 1970 and became its Chairman Emeritus in 2008, is survived by his wife Nancy (left in photo) and family. We are preparing a tribute to Bill, to be published in the March 2012 issue of Stereophile, but meanwhile, we are reprinting here an interview Paul Messenger and I conducted with Bill that was originally published in the June 1983 issue of Hi-Fi News. (My thanks to HFN editor Paul Miller for permission. Stereophile's 1994 interview with Bill can be found here.)John Atkinson
Willie Nelson Speeds Up to Internet Time
We've all heard about "Internet time"---that fraction of the "normal" time interval for a similar activity to occur on the Internet. As if to put an exclamation point on the concept of Internet time, the National">http://www.narm.com">National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) plans to make audio history March 10 at the 1999 NARM Convention coming up in Las Vegas.
Willie Nelson's Night and Day slated for DVD-Audio release October 31
It may still be a trickle, but at least a little music relief has reached the parched throats of audiophiles awaiting the arrival of DVD-Audio discs. Last week saw the announcementhttp://www.stereophile.com/news/10867/">announcement; that Aaron Neville's latest CD release will also hit stores as a multichannel DVD-A on Immergent Records on October 24. This week sees the announcement that another recording legend, Willie Nelson, will soon take the plunge.
Wilma Cozart Fine
Wilma Cozart Fine died Monday September 21 at age 82. Together with her husband Bob Fine, Cozart was responsible for producing and engineering Mercury's superb-sounding series of "Living Presence" classical recordings in the 1950s and '60s.
Wilson & dCS in Santa Monica, Wednesday & Thursday
On Wednesday and Thursday, April 6 & 7, 5:30pm8:30pm, The Audio Salon (Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Unit F1, Santa Monica) will present the first public demonstration in California of Wilson Audio's new Alexx loudspeaker. John Quick from dCS will be discussing and demonstrating the new Rossini Player, Rossini Clock, and the Vivaldi 2.0 Playback System. . .
Wilson & MSB Event in San Diego Friday
Friday, January 19, from 58pm, Alma Music and Audio (7847 Convoy Ct. #101, San Diego, CA 92111) are hosting an event with guests Peter McGrath of Wilson Audio Specialties and Vince Galbo of MSB. McGrath will be talking about the differences between Wilson's entry-level Sabrina loudspeaker and the more elaborate models, like the Alexia 2, as well as playing his own live recordings. Galbo will be demonstrating MSB's amplifiers and DACs.
WIlson Alexx Debut in Manhattan Wednesday
Wednesday 19 October, 6:009:00 pm, Manhattan dealer Innovative Audio (Architects & Designers Building 150 East 58th, Street Level, New York City), is hosting Wilson Audio's Peter McGrath, who will be presenting the new Alexx loudspeaker. Refreshments will be provided. RSVP by phone to (212) 634-4444 or via email.
Wilson and VTL Dance at Music Lovers
At Montreal's Salon Son et Image earlier this year, Peter McGrath of Wilson Audio (left in photo) found the pairing of the company's Sophia 3 loudspeaker ($18,000/pair) and VTL's MB-185 Series III, EL-34-based monoblocks ($15,000/pair) and VTL TL-5.5 preamp w/phono ($10,500) so felicitous that he proposed that he and VTL's Luke Manley (right in photo) revisit the coupling in the US. The opportunity arose at Music Lovers Audio in Berkeley, California, where a public afternoon demo on June 9, 2012 drew a large group of audiophiles who packed two large showrooms at the prestigious, well-appointed store.