Your Show of Shows: Newport Beach 2013 Starts Friday
In only its third year, T.H.E. Show Newport Beach has already become the largest consumer high-end/high-performance/fine-audio show in the United States. Running May 31June 2 in the Hilton and Atrium Hotels, directly across the street from southern California's surprisingly low-key Orange County/John Wayne airport, the booked-to-the-max show promises 140 active exhibit rooms, an estimated 450 manufacturers from around the globe, and enough ancillary events to rival a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey three-ring circus.
Except that there are a lot more rings.
Zanden Event in Virginia Saturday
Saturday April 9, from noon until 5pm, Metro Washington DC's Command Performance (115 Park Avenue, Suite #2 in Falls Church, VA) welcomes Kazutoshi Yamada and Eric Pheils of Zanden Audio for a special event. Mr. Yamada and Mr. Pheils will premier Zanden's flagship electronics: the Mk.II versions of the Model 9600 KR845 monoblock amplifiers (above) and the Model 3000 preamplifier.
Zektor to the Rescue
One of the most common complaints about multichannel audio has nothing to do with sound quality. It's the lack of multichannel switching on most preamps and receivers that irks most audiophiles.
Zingali Acoustics, JMF Audio, Pear Audio Blue, Top Wing, and Levin Design Dance in Unison
In an extremely large 2nd floor room, products from two US distributors, Reference Components and Audio Skies, joined forces in a single, powerful all-analog system. Of special note, on the LP Paris, were the absolutely compelling soaring silvery highs that Hilary Hahn's violin produced as she flew through Prokofiev's first Violin Concerto.
Zoran Announces Next-Generation DVD
Providing another boost to the nascent DVD-Audio market, Zoran">http://www.zoran.com">Zoran Corporation, a provider of integrated circuits (ICs) and software for digital video and audio applications, announced last week the availability of a new DVD decoder IC chip, the Vaddis">http://www.vaddis.com">Vaddis IV. Zoran says the chip is optimized for fourth-generation DVD players and will include integrated DVD-Audio decoding. According to the company, the new Vaddis IV decoder enables the design of flexible and advanced---yet affordable---new DVD players.
Zucker Says the Darnedest Things
When we last heard from NBC Universal's CEO Jeff Zucker, he'd refused to renew the network's yearly contract with Apple's iTunes Store, leading Apple to">http://stereophile.com/news/090307nbc/">to immediately pull NBC shows from the store rather than have them yanked midseason. In addition, Apple managed to control the story so that NBC came off looking clueless and greedy. You'd think Zucker would have learned to keep his mouth shut from that media drubbing.