The Alexis Park Hotel, also known as the "AP," has been home to high-end audio exhibitors for the past decade. And by that we mean two-channel audio exhibitors. But the last couple of years has seen an increase in video and surround sound home theater demos on the grounds. And this year the hotel changed its name to Alexis Villas, or as we will now be calling it: The AV. Coincidence?
As audiophiles, we all started somewhere, and the important fact is, we all started with a love of music. When it came to music playback equipment, more than a few of us remember the fold-up record player stacked with 45s, or the little transistor radio tucked under our pillow at night with a low-fi, one-channel earpiece attached.
Rarely does a day pass when Wes Phillips doesn't send his pals a bunch of emails with links to stuff he's found while Web surfing. Frequently it is audio-related, but even when it's not, there's usually something there worth checking out.
What happens to your old audio components? We're asking <I>Stereophile</I> readers <A HREF="http://cgi.stereophile.com/cgi-bin/displayvote.cgi">that very question this week</A>, but the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has already studied the habits of general consumers and found that most unwanted consumer electronics go to secondary users, not into America's waste stream.
Like many specialty audio companies, <A HREF="http://www.nhthifi.com">NHT</A> has had its ups and downs. The Benicia, CA–based loudspeaker manufacturer, founded by <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/232/">Ken Kantor</A> and Chris Byrne in 1986, was sold to Jensen International in the early 1990s, sold again to accesssories perveyor Recoton, and then acquired (and some would suggest saved) by Rockford Corporation towards the end of 2002.
Efforts to restrict the ways consumers use music they have purchased continue unabated. <A HREF="http://www.sunncomm.com">SunnComm</A> (along with its sales and marketing arm <A HREF="http://www.mediamaxtechnology.com">MediaMax</A>) has announced that its "newest patent-pending passive technology makes it even more difficult to bypass or 'hack' the copy protection structure contained on the MediaMax CDs."
Although some won't openly admit it, plenty of audiophiles with nice systems also own iPods. And they are not alone. According to figures recently revealed by the <A HREF="http://www.CE.org">Consumer Electronics Association</A>, more than 152 million Americans, representing 70% of the total US adult population, own some kind of portable entertainment device.
While <A HREF="http:/www.stereophile.com/news/100305musicgiants">some</A> are trying to push the quality of paid music downloads up, others are pushing in the other direction. <A HREF="http://www.sandisk.com">SanDisk</A>, primarily known for flash memory cards used in portable devices like digital cameras, is launching "gruvi," described as "the first removable flash memory card of its type to be sold with premium music content."
Mentioning the new <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias"><I>Stereophile</I> blog</A> to folks this past week, I usually got two questions. First, "Cool, what will it be about?" Then, "What, in fact, is a blog?"