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Maybe The Kids Are Allright

Jon Iverson Jun 11, 2000 First Published: Jun 11, 2000 0 comments

Remember FM radio's effect on college campuses years ago? Free music, usually without commercials (college stations are largely non-profit), and very flexible playlists made or broke new bands. Fast-forward to 2000. Students now spend most of their time downloading MP3 files for free over the Internet for playback on their computers. As before, new artists often benefit from this phenomena, but record companies are increasingly seeing the students as pirates rather than consumers.

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Added to the Archives This Week

Stereophile Staff Jun 04, 2000 First Published: Jun 04, 2000 0 comments

With multichannel DVD-Audio just around the corner, the surround-sound debate among audiophiles is starting anew. But how far have we come with surround sound in 30 years? J. Gordon Holt wrote "Bye">http://www.stereophile.com//asweseeit/235/">Bye Bye, Quadrifi?" back in 1971, in which he explored the same dilemmas faced by today's audiophile.

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Latin Jazz King Tito Puente Dies at 77

Barry Willis Jun 04, 2000 First Published: Jun 04, 2000 0 comments

Tito Puente, the "Mambo King" who fused jazz with Latin rhythms, died Wednesday, May 31 at New York University's Medical Center from complications following heart surgery. Puente was 77.

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DVD-Audio for under $300?

Patrick Megenity Jun 04, 2000 First Published: Jun 04, 2000 0 comments

The trend of computers redefining the price/performance ratio for digital audio shows no signs of slowing down. A new PCI-slot soundcard has been released by Digital">http://www.digitalconnection.com">Digital Connection that could help change preconceived notions about the level of sound quality achievable from a computer. The $295 DC Pro 24/96 enables a brand-new function for the PC, playback of DTS 5.1 music CDs, as well as support for 24-bit/96kHz playback and recording, currently available only on high-end soundcards such as the CardDeluxe from Digital Audio Labs and the RME DigiPro/8.

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Fighting Audiophile Obsolescence

Jon Iverson Jun 04, 2000 First Published: Jun 04, 2000 0 comments

Waiting for the Holy Grail of DVD-Audio? Even with players still distant on the horizon, one can now begin building a DVD-Audio music library with discs compatible with current DVD-Video players. At least that's the strategy offered at the recent High End 2000 show in Frankfurt, Germany this past week.

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Napster Reinstates Some Users, Attacks Offspring, Angers Madonna

Barry Willis Jun 04, 2000 First Published: Jun 04, 2000 0 comments

The Napsterhttp://www.napster.com/">Napster; saga continues: Last week the Silicon Valley–based firm, which has been very successful with its MP3 file-sharing software, reinstated approximately 30,000 music fans who had signed online affidavits attesting that they had been mistakenly accused of appropriating songs by rock group Metallica. Those reinstated were slightly less than 10% of the 317,000 Napster users who had been booted from the system on May 3 as a result of legal attacks by Metallica.

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DiAural Technology Now Online

Jon Iverson May 28, 2000 First Published: May 28, 2000 0 comments

Last year, Stereophile's Barry Willis took a trip to Ogden, Utah, to reporthttp://www.stereophile.com/news/10416/">report; on what was then a secret speaker project being conducted by Kimber">http://www.kimberkable.com/">Kimber Kable's Ray Kimber and designer Eric Alexander. After informal listening, Willis noted that, while not being able to completely nail down what the "under development" DiAural crossover circuitry was doing, something new was certainly in the air.

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SDMI Watermarking Effort Rankles Engineers

Barry Willis May 28, 2000 First Published: May 28, 2000 0 comments

The Secure">http://www.sdmi.org/">Secure Digital Music Initiative's move to establish a copy-prevention technology for commercial recordings has rankled audio engineers, who claim that the audible watermarking technique chosen by the organization could mar high-resolution recordings. Of particular concern are SDMI's testing methods and its rush to get a standard in place without commentary from engineers or the music-buying public.

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Downloads Up, CD Sales Down among College Students

Stereophile Staff May 28, 2000 First Published: May 28, 2000 0 comments

Music sales over the past two years have increased almost everywhere except near college campuses, according to a recent study undertaken by Reciprocal">http://www.reciprocal.com/">Reciprocal, Inc., a digital-rights management company. The first quarter of 2000 showed a 12% rise in overall music sales compared to the same period in 1998—except at stores located within five miles of a college campus. Reciprocal reached its conclusions based on figures supplied by sales-tracking organization Soundscan">http://wallofsound.go.com/charts/index.html/">Soundscan, Inc.

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European Union Ministers Disagree on Copyrights

Barry Willis May 28, 2000 First Published: May 28, 2000 0 comments

Will the European Union extend copyright protection to new digital media? That question was still unresolved Friday, May 26, after extended talks between ministers of the EU's 15 member nations failed to produce a coherent result. Meeting in Brussels, the ministers have been discussing how best to protect the interests of copyright holders while allowing consumers adequate leeway to use and reproduce legally purchased music, movies, video, and computer software.