picky Posted September 23, 2013 Share Posted September 23, 2013 Sign of the times? Back in May of this year, 'Home Theater Magazine', a popular publication amongst many home theater enthusiasts such as myself, which features home theaters that are built by their owners and actually featured my very own home theater in their June 2006 issue and again in January 2007, decided to purchase 'Sound & Vision Magazine', which began life many years ago as 'Stereo Review'. These are the two-largest publications currently available that are devoted to the hobby we all love so much: Audio and Video. As of the October issue of 'Sound & Vision' (available now), the two publications have been combined into one. A sad day? Perhaps. I'm sure there will be a lack of coverage on many of the favorite columns and articles that readers looked forward to each month, but at least both pubs haven't bowed-out entirely. Although, I am very much "virtual-info-centric", I still enjoy the monthly ritual of receiving a color magazine in the mail and paging through it over morning coffee one page at a time. Call me old-fashioned, but I do read an awful lot and it's a huge stress reliever, not to mention it helps keep the old brain cells activated.....I think. I know it won't be the same as when both magazines came to my door, but if this month's issue is an indication of what is to come, it is full of great information that I have been seeking out. In case you are interested, this month's issue (October 2013) features an article on digital audio, entitled: "Getting Started In Computer Audio" (pg34) and explains the best ways to acquire, store, distribute and play-back digital music content, included a discussion on codecs. There's another article on in-wall subwoofers, not to mention the usual equipment reviews and critiques' on movies and CDs, So, I guess we'll see how things shake out with the combined mags. I know there's a HUGE amount of info available on line covering our hobby, but it's still nice to curl up with a hand-held resource occasionally and it gives me the excuse to have that third cuppa joe! - Glenn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted September 23, 2013 Share Posted September 23, 2013 yeh. suppose that is a sign of the times. wonder if the economy has hastened this. seems like folks have less disposable income for audio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T2K Posted September 23, 2013 Share Posted September 23, 2013 I believe Stereo Review and Video Mag (or something like) were combined years ago. I threw boxes of them away years ago. Should have kept the ones with the Klipsch reviews. Keith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted September 24, 2013 Author Share Posted September 24, 2013 yeh. suppose that is a sign of the times. wonder if the economy has hastened this. seems like folks have less disposable income for audio. Dee: You are spot-on, sir! This economy has not only impacted audio, but when coupled with on-line news and media and the ability to get free information, it has really taken down a lot of newspapers and magazines! -Glenn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RT FAN Posted September 24, 2013 Share Posted September 24, 2013 I gave up my subscription to Stereo Review when it became Sound & Vision, that seems like a long time ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted September 24, 2013 Share Posted September 24, 2013 yeh. suppose that is a sign of the times. wonder if the economy has hastened this. seems like folks have less disposable income for audio. Really? Millions spend 2k or more for a flat as a pancake TV picture that won't fool my cat. These same folks shell out signicant sums for surround sound systems. I took a look at Best Buy, not exactly an audiophile hotspot. They offered 345 HT sound systems. I ordered them in best selling order and found the first 150 contained a LOT of what would be more than decent, some even outstanding sounding systems. Few of these would excite the audiophile, but neither did Joe Sixpack's Superscope reciever, Sansui speakers, and Garrard turntable back in the day. Many of these systems are much better than that. But Joe Sixpack considers stereo obsolete. He's getting kickass surround sound with his movies a few of which are actually realistic. Joe gets his music from downloads. There is no available surround download format, though it's not hard to create one. Worse, the junk offered so far as multi-channel music is pretty much uniformly awful, muddy, and hardly convincing so an easy way to get it really wouldn't help. Recording a 360 degree soundfield is not rocket science, but playing it back IS with current equipment, unless you are nerd, geek AND audiophile and willing to go through the trouble. Joe is none of those things, and until he can download and playback stuff on the equipment he has without any thought it isn't going to happen. I listen mainly to my LP collection. However, it's only because there is no alternative. I still dream of truly realistic, immersive recordings that place me smack in the best seat in the house in a cathedral, a jazz performance, a thunderstorm, an opera, or a broadway play. We HAVE the technology. JMHO Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted September 24, 2013 Share Posted September 24, 2013 thanks for your take Dave. rings true to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted September 24, 2013 Share Posted September 24, 2013 thanks for your take Dave. rings true to me. It's a tough sell, DD, but it's my story and I am sticking to it... Further, I can make such recordings and have done so. Getting them to YOU or anyone else...Aye, there's the rub. \ Once I get retired I intend to get back to it. My wife is getting excited at the prospect of ventures abroad with recording gear in hand. You may be the only person who'd care about this, but we've found Christian, Jewish, Greek, and Roman music from as early as the first century expertly and beautifully played. It's breathtaking to hear something Christ may well have heard in the Herodic temple. One piece from Musica Romana called "aulos et hydraulis" is a duet between a double aulos (Roman reed instrument) and a hydraulis, a water organ. Upon hearing it, I immediately realized that I was hearing that which inspired some hydraulis builder within a century or so to think "Golly, why not just put a rank of aulos with only a single pitch on my hydraulis, a switch to turn them in or out?" Eureka, the first organ stop! So much scholarship in the this area in the past 30 years. None of the above was known then. I have two CDs on order, one from the San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble of the first century Hebrew and Christian music, and one from Musica Romana, the ancient Roman group. The San Antonio group won't show up intil late October...not sure why. The other should be here in a week or 10 days. I'm excited and will report in due time. Dave PS - Oops. Sorry about the hijack, but I got excited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted September 24, 2013 Share Posted September 24, 2013 yeh. suppose that is a sign of the times. wonder if the economy has hastened this. seems like folks have less disposable income for audio. I don't think it's about disposable income as much as it is about getting free info on the Net. Penthouse magazine was popular and sold well for decades, but had to close because people could find similar content online for free, and could see a full-screen image that was bigger than magazine size. It's about new the information technology displacing the old. Another example of this is the number of newspapers that are going online only and no longer printing physical newspapers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted September 24, 2013 Share Posted September 24, 2013 It's about new the information technology displacing the old. Fully agree. The problem is that the new technology DISPLACES without REPLACING. Joe and Jill Sixpack used to buy the same high resolution media as audiophiles (think LPS...even cassettes and CDs). Not any more. I still maintain this to be a temporary aberation. Storage is already dirt cheap, and as bandwidth increases (which it will due to the demand for HD content now and HD 4k soon) compression will become an unnecessary redundancy. Even the highest res audio is easy compared to video. Joe and Jill will get better stuff whether they know it or not, and so will we. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted September 24, 2013 Share Posted September 24, 2013 What a shame. I fondly remember the days of reading Hi-Fidelity and Stereo Review magazines back in the day, drooling over all the gear that I could not afford as a youngster. I especially loved reading the late Julian Hirsh's equipement reviews. I too wish I had kept the many years of issues of both of those great magazines I used to have in boxes. I finally got rid of them 5 or 6 years ago... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted September 25, 2013 Share Posted September 25, 2013 I especially loved reading the late Julian Hirsh's equipement reviews. The one I miss is Edward Tatnall Canby of Audio magazine. It was especially cool when he'd visit his attic where it seems he'd kept every piece of gear he'd ever owned. The Canby Singers were a wonderful choral group. Yep, those were the days when hifi flew high. You could get those mags from any supermarket, if that gives the younger folks an idea of just how mass market music and gear was in the 70s and thereabouts. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark1101 Posted September 25, 2013 Share Posted September 25, 2013 Once we all start paying for everyone's Obamacare...........I trust a few more luxuries will disappear as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted September 25, 2013 Share Posted September 25, 2013 Once we all start paying for everyone's Obamacare...........I trust a few more luxuries will disappear as well. Just speaking for myself...I come HERE to get far, far away from such stuff. Frankly, I'd rather hear about the latest Bose innovations. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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