UHF No 70 (Net).indd - Ultra High Fidelity Magazine

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Gossip&News Errata It’s Latin for “errors,” and this is where we make corrections to items in issue No. 69 of UHF Magazine. First the title (page 34) of the Creek CD player: the one reviewed is not the MkII version, unlike what we wrote. The text made it plain that the forthcoming MkII will be quite different from the player we reviewed, using a computer ATA drive and reading the music from memory. In the review of the Audiomat Opéra integrated amplifi er (page 40), we said that one of the two toggle switches on the front panel is for the tape loop. It is in fact a muting switch…as we would have realized had we looked more attentively at our own cover photo! The same review suggested somewhat ambiguously that the Opéra is supplied either with an Actinote power cord, or with “the usual junk power cord.” Though our test unit did have an Actinote in the box, neither is standard issue with the Opéra, which comes with a Belden cord fi tted with a Hubbell wall plug. “Piracy” In the US, more than in any other country, content providers (i.e. makers of recordings and movies) are aggressively fi ghting “pirates,” meaning anyone making a copy of protected material. Here’s the next round. A bill now before the US Senate would make make it legally actionable to encourage people to “steal” copyrighted material. What this means, as bill sponsor Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) explains, is that copyright owners could sue not only those who steal music or fi lms, but also “parties who intend to induce others to infringe copyright.” copyright.” Note the word intend. The main target is clearly the fi le sharing networks such as Grokster Grokster and KaZaa. Critics, however, however, claim that Hatch wants to reverse the Betamax decision of two decades ago, and that the measure could be used against such devices as the iPod 70 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine Do Record Companies Cheat? For years record companies have wrung their hands over music downloading, but not all their artists are singing from the same hymn book. Courtney Love and Janis Ian have been extensively quoted on the subject in UHF. Now add David Crosby, of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, who in March opened up to PBS about the record business. There’s a lot of cheating and lying and stealing that goes on in any major business, and the music business is no exception. I don’t think that there’s much we can do about it. They built their business model in an era when they could make, I don’t know, on a million-selling album, they’re making 10 million bucks or something, and they do eight of those in a year. That’s what they built their business model on. And it seemed reasonable to build huge buildings and hire hundreds of people…and get a corporate jet or two. What a very grandiose idea of how to go about things. Now they’re going in the tank, because the world has changed, and they did not change with it. They bit the poison pill, without realizing it, when they went digital. Once a thing is in the digital domain, it can be copied as many times as you want. And there is no system that can keep it from being It’s one of those brand names you don’t have to be an audiophile to know. Do you follow Formula 1 racing? Then you’ll spot the McLaren McLaren name right away. What’s the connection with Tag McLaren’s audio products? It’s hard to say. McLaren cars sometimes win, whereas Tag McLaren can’t win for losing. One One of the company’s exploits, when it started up in 1998, was purchasing Audiolab, and then dumping the company’s products in favor of a new line that — according to a distributor who said thanks but no thanks — cost double. In July of last year, company CEO Udo Zucker announced that TMA would cease all development of new copied. You can devise the most clever one you want, and I will bring some little geek with a pen protector in his pocket into the room and he will fi x it in a minute. Crosby told PBS he and his former band members would never have made it under today’s system. And there’s more. I think one of the most glaring examples of what they do wrong is they cheat as a matter of policy on paying, because they know that you’ll have to hire an accountant and audit them. Then, when you get the audit figure and they owe you $486,000, they’ll offer you 30% in settlement, knowing full well you’ll ask for 100% and that you’ll settle somewhere around 50. The other 50% is free money. They knew it going in. They intended to do it from the beginning, so that they could get the other 50% for free. Hence, just a little bonus thing, thank you very much, and it’s from heaven. And they all do it as a matter of policy. They know they’re going to cheat, going in. Crosby has praise for Apple iTunes Music Store, which he says is selling lots of his music…with no expenses. You can view the full program, The Way the Music Died, at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/ frontline/shows/music/ Last chances to get a subscription… Tag McLaren Goes East …at the old price. Check out page 3 of this issue (page 5 of the PDF), for the current price. On February 1st 2005 the price rises sharply. And so will tbe price of back issues. products…not the sort of event that brings dealers dealers rushing to your door. Indeed, the company added that it would henceforth henceforth concentrate on home theatre, not audio. Good move? Or perhaps not. Here’s the bright side: Tag McLaren has found a buyer. It is now owned by a Chinese firm, International Audio Group, Group, which also owns Quad and Wharfedale. The new company Web site does show show audio products as well as the home theatre stuff, but there’s no indication what the new management’s tilt will be. The international Audio Group, by the way, has not purchased the F1 racing company, one of whose major shareholders is DaimlerChrysler. If you’re reading this after Fabruary 1, 2005…we hope you agree that UHF is still worth every penny. We live in a world of too much information, but you know what? That makes good information even more valuable!
Does DVD Have a Future? It’s no secret that CD sales are down worldwide. But while record companies blame fi le sharing, there may be another culprit: the DVD. CD and DVD purchases come from the same family budget, and it seems natural that the rise in one would be accompanied by a drop in the other. And the DVD is booming. One of the world’s major producers of both DVDs and CDs is Cinram, based in Toronto, with plants worldwide. Cinram distributes what it makes, too. It got the distribution rights to Warner products last year and Universal this year, with BMG (RCA Victor, etc.) coming aboard shortly. No wonder Cinram’s profits in the fi rst quarter of this year jumped 105%. That should have made the stock price soar. But in fact Cinram stock bled 10% of its value since the start of the year, because some analysts are nervous. Sure, DVD is big right now, but what if there’s something else that will replace it? Like what? Well, several technology companies have been showing possible successors to the current DVD. A high defi nition disc using a blue laser is one possible replacement, though for the moment there are two incompatible systems on the table. And Microsoft fi gures you’ll be watching movies on your computer. That was enough for Cannacord Capital to put Cinram shares under review “with negative bias.” Hmm, let’s see now. Cinram started out making CDs, but transited seamlessly to DVD. If there’s something beyond DVD, won’t someone have to make it? We Wood, Wood You? How did we miss this one? We were in Vegas, and so was the JVC EX-A1, a “desktop entertainment system that includes a DVD player, and these intriguing speakers, with woofer cones that seem to be made of… Yes, they’re wood. Perhaps that’s not as outlandish as it sounds. Lots of speakers use paper cones, and what is paper but wood that has been chewed or something? But JVC hasn’t chewed the birch that is used for its new speakers. The cones are made of actual birch layers. W hy? Because it “brings out the natural beauty of music by providing the ideal combination of high sound propagation speed and high internal loss.” We ourselves would probably have gone for low internal loss (or a good proofreader), but JVC is a lot bigger than our company, so perhaps they know something we don’t. Wood can crack, of course, but JVC says its woofer cones are specially treated to be at once strong and resilient. To accomplish this, JVC soaks the cones in Japanese sake. You can’t make up stuff like this. Who says audio design isn’t art? ADVERTISERS Aldburn Electronics . . . . . . . .47 Almarro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Artech Electronics . . . . . . .12, 16 Audiomat . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 3 Audiophileboutique.com . . . . . .60 Audio Room . . . . . . . . . . . .68 Bluebird Music . . . . . . . . . . .46 Blue Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Boyz on a Wire . . . . . . . . . . .20 CEC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 Charisma Audio . . . . . . . . . .17 Daruma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Diamond Groove . . . . . . . . . .10 Divergent Technologies . . . . . .47 Eichmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Entre’Acte Audio . . . . . . . . . .10 Europroducts Internat. . 9, 14, 20, 66 Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 Fab Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Focus Audio . . . . . . . . . .Couv. 3 Griffi n Audio . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Gryphon . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Hi Fi Fo Fum . . . . . . . . . . . .66 Home Theater Cruise . . . . . . .15 The House of Sound . . . . . . . .18 Jadis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Justice Audio . . . . . . . . .Cover 2 Just May Audio . . . . . . . .Cover 2 Linn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Marchand Electronics . . . . . . .11 Michell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Moon . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 4 Murata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Mutine . . . . . . . . . . 57, Cover 3 Pierre Gabriel . . . . . . . . . . . .16 ProAc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Reference 3a . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Roksan . . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 2 Shanling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Simaudio . . . . . . . . . . .Cover 4 Signature Audio . . . . . . . . . .11 Soundstage . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Spendor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Totem Acoustic . . . . . . . .Cover 4 UHF Back Issues . . . . . . . . . .25 UHF Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Venus Hi-Fi . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine 71 Gossip&News
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No. 70 $4.99 ISSN 0847-1851 Canadia
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