News

Jan Berry, of '60s surf music duo Jan and Dean, died Friday, March 26 at UCLA Medical Center, after suffering a seizure at his home in Brentwood. He was 62.

The Home">http://www.homeentertainment-expo.com">Home Entertainment Show (HE2004), the largest and most comprehensive showcase of consumer electronics and imaging products in America, returns to New York City May 20–23, 2004 at the Hilton New York Hotel—the site of two popular HE Shows held in 2001 and 2002. Over 15,000 attendees are expected to visit the NY Hilton, optimized for the ultimate user experience. Unlike typical trade shows, HE2004 provides visitors with the opportunity of seeing and hearing the finest products in upscale hotel rooms, creating the best-sounding environments for demonstrating high-performance gear.

Some months back, a poll at the Naxos of America websitehttp://www.naxos.com">website; asked visitors about their preferences among high-resolution and multichannel formats. At that time, Naxos had been releasing DVD-As (and DVDs) in the US, but only released SACDs elsewhere.

Launched with a bang last April, Apple">http://apple.com">Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store has steadily gained popularity with music fans, but it won't reach its projected goal of selling 100 million songs online within its first year.

From the March 2004 issue, Michael Fremer goes a couple rounds with the Theta">http://www.stereophile.com/amplificationreviews/304theta">Theta Digital Enterprise monoblock power amplifier, exclaiming, "Monoblock power amplifiers seem to be moving in and out of my listening room faster than green-onion salsa from Chi-Chi's." So how does the Theta stand up to the competition? MF lays it out.

Audiophiles interested in experimenting with upconverting the digital data on their CDs to higher resolutions will find a recent announcement from the Netherlands of interest. Dutch company Eximiushttp://www.eximius.nl">Eximius; revealed last week a new product tagged "DVD+Audio Creator" for converting CDs to either upsampled PCM or compressed MP2 files.

From the March 2004 issue, John Atkinson finally gets to listen to the Sonus">http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/304sonus">Sonus Faber Cremona loudspeaker and explains, "it took rather longer than I had expected to set the Cremonas up in my listening room. But, like everything worth experiencing, the wait was worth it."