News
Sort By: Post Date | Title | Publish Date
HD Music at Magnolia! (and LPs at Urban Outfitters!)
News
Michael Lavorgna • Feb 22, 2012 • 0 comments
From an Olive Media press release:
Magnolia Showrooms to Feature Olive's Award-winning HD Music Server Line, Presenting Unique High Definition Content and Personal Listening Sessions.

San Francisco, CA, February 21, 2012. Olive Media is pleased to announce that its highly reviewed and award-winning HD Music Servers- the Olive O3HD, O4HD, and O6HD- are now available at participating Magnolia Design Center and Magnolia Audio Video locations in California, Washington, Texas, and Georgia, which are listed at http://www.OliveHD.com/Magnolia.

Continue Reading »
The War Against Downloaders, One Site At A Time
News
Michael Lavorgna • Feb 16, 2012 • 1 comments
Copyright infringement is serious business and it just got a kick in the enforcement. As spotted on Ars Technica:
The 70,000 daily visitors to popular music site RnBXclusive.com were met with a purposely terrifying message on Tuesday and part of Wednesday. The UK's Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) took the site down, arrested its operator, and threw up a splash page that warned downloaders of "up to 10 years imprisonment." Thought statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringement in the US were ludicrous? SOCA warns that downloaders from the site could face an "unlimited fine under UK law."
Continue Reading »
Antelope Audio’s Zodiac DAC + iPad = 384kHz
News
Michael Lavorgna • Feb 14, 2012 • 3 comments
This just in from an Antelope Audio Press Release:
Santa Monica, February 14, 2012 — Antelope Audio’s Zodiac D/A converters are now compatible with iPad, allowing music lovers to enjoy pristine audio of up to 384 kHz [OS X only], played and controlled from their iPad through the Zodiac DAC.
Continue Reading »
No Streaming for Kisses On The Bottom
News
Michael Lavorgna • Feb 08, 2012 • 4 comments
Sir Paul McCartney has joined Adele, The Black Keys, and Tom Waits by blocking his new album Kisses On The Bottom from being played on any of the streaming services like MOG, last.fm or Rhapsody. The Black Keys have been the most vocal about the reason behind this decision—from an interview with VH1:
Continue Reading »
Used Digital Record Shop ReDigi Can Stay Open, for now
News
Michael Lavorgna • Feb 08, 2012 • 14 comments
District Judge Richard J. Sullivan said not so fast to Capital Records by denying their request to shut down start-up and pre-owned digital music site/shop ReDigi.

As reported by Ars Technica, ReDigi's founder John Ossenmacher had this to say to Capital Records:

Continue Reading »
Exhibit V for Van Etten
Michael Lavorgna, News
Michael Lavorgna • Feb 01, 2012 • 1 comments
Sharon Van Etten

While Neil Young rightfully rails against the poor sound quality of the MP3, I still feel MP3 and other lossy formats have a use. And the best use is free access to music. Ya know, discovery. The wonderful "First Listen" series on NPR is currently streaming (at 128 kbps) the complete yet-to-be-released record Tramp from Sharon Van Etten. For free. The entire record. The idea is if you like it, you'll buy a real copy (and no, I do not mean the crappy iTunes or Amazon lossy download version—remember, do not pay for crappy quality lossy music). I've pre-ordered the Deluxe Bundle (LP + CD + more) from Jagjaguwar (official release date 02/07/12). See, it worked.

You can listen to Sharon Van Etten's "Tramp" in its entirety too. For free. You just have to click and listen before the release date (after that, NPR removes the music).

"Bose and Beats...are all about the back end of the donkey." Neil Young
News
Michael Lavorgna • Feb 01, 2012 • 5 comments
Thanks to reader Mr. T for pointing us to this more recent and more extensive interview with Neil Young on AllThingsD.com where he expands on his distaste for the MP3.
Continue Reading »
Neil Young Hates MP3s (and so do we)
News
Michael Lavorgna • Jan 26, 2012 • 37 comments
Speaking up at the Sundance Film Festival, Neil Young spoke out against shitty sound quality. He told MTV news:
"I'm finding that I have a little bit of trouble with the quality of the sound of music today," Young said. "I don't like it. It just makes me angry. Not the quality of the music, but we're in the 21st century and we have the worst sound that we've ever had. It's worse than a 78. Where are our geniuses? What happened?"
Continue Reading »
Digital Music Report 2012
News
Michael Lavorgna • Jan 25, 2012 • 2 comments
The IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) recently released its “Digital Music Report 2012” that shows a very healthy and growing global digital music market.
Digital music revenues to record companies grew by 8 percent globally in 2011 to an estimated US$5.2 billion. This compares to growth of 5 per cent in 2010 and represents the first time the year-on-year growth rate has increased since IFPI started measuring digital revenues in 2004.
Continue Reading »
Apple and 802.11ac "Gigabit WiFi"
News
Michael Lavorgna • Jan 24, 2012 • 4 comments
According to AppleInsider, Apple is working on implementing the as yet to be finalized 802.11ac "Gigabit WiFi" standard (about three times as fast as 802.11n) in "new AirPort base stations, Time Capsule, Apple TV, notebooks and potentially its mobile devices" by the 2nd half of this year. Do you think this expanded bandwidth capability will finally usher in 24-bit file streaming over Apple AirPort networks? Did I hear someone say, gulp!
Megaupload Down And Out?
News
Michael Lavorgna • Jan 22, 2012 • 12 comments
On January 19, 2012 the U.S. Justice Department seized about $50 million is assets of file sharing services company Megaupload and shut down all of the websites under the Megaupload corporate umbrella. 18 domain names were seized including Megavideo, Megalive, Megapix, Megabox, and CUM.com (formerly Megaporn, Megarotic, and Sexuploader). Megaupload is accused of copyright infringement and conspiracy and more and the accused face up to 20 years in prison. The prime suspect in the case is one Kim Dotcom (born Kim Schmitz) who founded Megaupload and who appears to live a larger than life lifestyle.
Continue Reading »
Newer Technology Power2U AC/USB Wall Outlet
Cables & Accessory Reviews, News
Michael Lavorgna • Jan 19, 2012 • Published: Jan 18, 2012 • 2 comments
I saw this handy little item in a pre-CES Press Release from OWC and thought, cool. While I did not see one in person at the show, I still think it's cool. The Newer Technology Power2U AC/USB Wall Outlet ($27.99/ea) installs into any existing 16 cubic inch electrical box with a 15Amp circuit and its UL/CUL Listed (E339607) for use in United States & Canada.
Continue Reading »
SOPA and PIPA
News
Michael Lavorgna • Jan 19, 2012 • 5 comments
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) bills got a lot of attention yesterday when sites like Wikipedia went dark to raise awareness of and in protest against what they feel are the bills overreaching and dangerous implications. Here's an open letter from www.stopthewall.us that expresses some of those concerns:
Continue Reading »
Pioneer N-50 Elite Networked Audio Player
News
Michael Lavorgna • Jan 04, 2012 • 22 comments
Pioneer made the official N-50 announcement today. Here are the vitals (from Pioneer):

Networking: AirPlay-compatible, DLNA 1.5, vTuner Internet Radio, Ethernet, Wireless LAN and Bluetooth ready (requires separate devices)
Inputs: Asynchronous USB DAC (32-bit/192kHz), S/PDIF (Coax & Toslink), Ethernet/LAN input, front panel USB for Mass storage/iPod/iPhone/iPad digital
Outputs: RCA, S/PDIF (Coax & Toslink)
Other: “Made for iPad, iPhone and iPod”, iPhone or Android remote apps, 2.5” Full-Color LCD Display, included remote and more...
File Formats Supported: WAV (24-bit/192khz), FLAC (24-bit/192khz), MP3 (320kbps), WMA (320kbps), AAC (320kbps) and Ogg Vorbis (320kbps).

Continue Reading »
ReDigi: A Used Digital Music Market?
News
Michael Lavorgna • Jan 03, 2012 • 1 comments
Used digital music? I think "pre-owned" may be more accurate but the concept is as old as the hills—sell music you bought that you longer want:
Simply put, ReDigi is recycled digital media. We’re like your favorite used record store, but for digital music files. We offer the best-quality downloads of your favorite songs for a much lower price than other music stores, and you don't have to worry about songs being lower-quality becuase a digital music file isn't like a CD - it never gets scratched or worn out.
But is it legal?
Continue Reading »