News

Last week saw a flurry of announcements in the online audio and video streaming business, capped off by Yahoo!'s">http://www.yahoo.com">Yahoo!'s acquisition of Broadcast.comhttp://www.broadcast.com">Broadcast.com;. Yahoo! says it has signed a definitive agreement with Broadcast.com whereby Yahoo! will issue 0.7722 of a share of Yahoo! common stock for each share of Broadcast.com common stock. In addition, all outstanding options of Broadcast.com will be converted into Yahoo! options. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 1999 and is valued at around $5.7 billion, including $4.8 billion in Broadcast.com common stock and $900 million in stock options.

Forget about tuning dots, mystical poker chips, and clocks with programmed electrons. They're all hopelessly out of date.

Any audiophile who stumbles onto one of the more cantankerous audio newsgroups ("wreck audio opinion," anyone?) may wonder what has happened to the modern breed of audiophiles. One suspects that religious wars pale when compared to how some audio pundits jostle against each other! But over the years, there has always been a wide variety of opinion. For a perspective written decades ago that still holds true today, we present J. Gordon Holt's classic "Why">http://www.stereophile.com//features/104/">Why Hi-Fi Experts Disagree."

Accidents and disasters have no sense of good timing, and when they strike have a way of fouling even the most promising love affairs. Case in point: loudspeaker manufacturer Von">http://www.vonschweikert.com/">Von Schweikert Research and the small town of Watertown (pop. 30,000) in northern New York, about three hours' drive from Toronto.

Last week, in Book">http://www.stereophile.com//reference/101/">Book Review: High Fidelity Audio/Video Systems: A Critical Guide for Owners, we ran Corey Greenberg's scathing review of an audio book that misses the mark by a wide margin. This week, in Book">http://www.stereophile.com//reference/102/">Book Review: The Complete Guide to High-End Audio, we examine a book written by erstwhile Stereophile consulting technical editor Robert Harley. He does not emerge unscathed!

Montreal audiophiles are a hardy lot. Last winter, the city experienced the most devastating ice storm in its history, with power lines demaged to the point that almost the entire city was plunged in darkness. At the time of the 1998 Festival du Son et de l'Image (aka the Montreal Audio/Video Show), residents were still recovering from the effects of the storm. Did this calamity stop the show? No way! By all accounts, the 1998 show was the most successful in the event's 11-year history. I missed it myself, but I made sure that I wouldn't miss the next one.

Myles Astor, publisher of Ultimate">http://www.ultimateaudio.com/">Ultimate Audio, recently announced that former Stereophile contributing editor Jack English has joined his publication as a senior editor.