According to the latest from editor John Atkinson, Stereophile turned 45 this month.

 

Those of you old enough to have experienced life before the internet remember when print magazines were our primary source of news and information for, well, anything. Stereophile mailed out their first issue in November 1962. Think about it. 45 years. It's quite an achievement. 

 

Congratulations to the staff at Stereophile, and our thanks for publishing a quality print magazine that endures in the information age. 

The European HD DVD Promotional Group has released some attach rate figures, and it's very good news for HD DVD.

 

European HD DVD owners have purchased an average of 3.8 movies, compared to 0.6 movies for European Blu Ray player owners. The highest attach rate came from Spain, where HD DVD owners purchased 5.7 movies per player, in contrast to 0.4 for Spanish Blu Ray owners. Italy boasts a 4.4 movie/player rate for HD DVD, 0.4 for Blu Ray. French owners bought 5 movies each, 0.6 for Blu Ray. German HD DVD owners bought 2.9 movies/player, German Blu Ray owners 0.6, and UK owners took home 3.7 HD DVD movies per player compared to 0.8 for Blu Ray.

 

Polk Audio has unveiled a new line of loudspeakers, the RTi2008 Series.

 

Three models at this time, the RTi2008 Series consists of three floorstanding models, the RTi A5, RTi A7 and RTi A9. Features shared by the three models include curved sides on the enclosures, ferro-fluid cooled silk polymer 1' dome tweeters with neodymium magnets, new Power Port port design, which claims to reduce port turbulence while also allowing for lower tuning frequencies, and your choice of cherry or black ash real wood veneers.  The A5 has two 6.5" midbass drivers and stands 40.25" tall, the A7 has one 6.5" midrange coupled with two 7" woofers at 42.25" tall, and the A9 has two 6.5" midrange drivers aligned with the tweeter in an MTM configuration and also sports three 7" woofers in it's towering 48.625" enclosure.

 

Pricing for the RTi2008 Series is $949 for the A5, $1149 for the A7 and $1749 for the A9.

 

Internet direct loudspeaker maker Axiom Audio has announced it's first multimedia loudspeaker offering, the AudioByte Line.

 

The diminuitive 6.5" tall AudioBytes will be available in three configurations: vinyl clad for $349/pair, faux wood for $399/pair and hand lacquered walnut for $599/pair. A matching subwoofer will be offered for an additional $179. The AudioByte is a two way speaker, sporting a 1" titanium dome tweeter paired with a 3" aluminum woofer. A separate 110 watt amplifier is included with the speakers.

 

The AudioBytes will be available later this month direct from Axiom Audio, and all orders receive free shipping for North American orders.

 

There are many established names in the audio world, brands we all know and follow. While you may be familiar with their products, and maybe even some of the people behind the products, often we know little about the company behind it all.

 

To that end AV Enthusiast is going to start publishing the AV Enthusiast Spotlight. The purpose of the Spotlight will be to illuminate the history of the brands we know and love, and hopefully will offer some information that will further your appreciation of the people who bring us the objects that fulfill our obsession.

 

The inaugural AV Enthusiast Spotlight is near and dear to my heart, as I use their loudspeakers in my home theater and have been a big fan of their product through the years: Tannoy Loudspeakers.

 

 

Sony Corp. C.E.O. Howard Stringer was quoted Thursday as saying that the Format War is a "stalemate".

 

Quite the turnaround to the many and repeated statements of victory that have come from the Blu Ray camp in the last year. Stringer called the duel between Sony's Blu Ray and rival HD DVD "a difficult fight". "We were trying to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while, until Paramount changed sides," Stringer stated. Stringer shrugged off the importance of the fight between the rival formats, saying it was mostly for bragging rights. "It doesn't mean as much as all that," said Stringer. He did express regret for the two sides not being able to come together behind one format before the launch of both Blu Ray and HD DVD.

 

Sony's C.E.O. expressing such sentiments publicly should alarm all Blu Ray advocates. It demonstrates a waning commitment to their format, or at the very least, a serious decline in the confidence they have in their format's chances in this struggle for HD optical supremacy.