Smithsonian Folkways Radio is an Internet radio station curated by Smithsonian Folkways.
Smithsonian Folkways is the non-profit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It’s mission is ” … to document “people’s music,” spoken word, instruction, and sounds from around the world.” It’s catalogue reflects this mission, with recordings from around the world, dating from the 1940s. … Read the full post
DALI has announced that the new Kubik Free powered speaker is now shipping.
The Kubik Free is DALI’s first powered speaker with four 25 Watt Read the full post
The BBC radio programme The Why Factor recently had an interesting episode on Sad Music. It deals with what makes music ‘sad’ and why sad music is popular.
Check it out here or get a download a podcast for here.
© Wayne Butcher… Read the full post
The winners of the 2013 Gramophone Classical Music Awards have been announced. The Special Award winners are as follows:
Recording of the Year: Bartók / Eötvös / Ligeti. Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Peter Eötvös
Artist of the Year: Alison Balsom
Lifetime Achievement: Julian Bream
Young Artist of the Year: Jan Lisiecki
Special Achievement Award: Alain Lanceron
Label of the Year: Decca Classics
Check the 2013 Gramophone Classical Music Awards Web page for links to the award winners.… Read the full post
The NuForce Sound Quality Listening Guide provides a collection of audio tracks selected to highlight different aspects of high quality audio reproduction.
The guide includes an album, NuForce Audio Concepts Demo, which can be downloaded from the Web page. Its 16 audio tracks use a range of instruments such as drums, flute, cello and bass to present such concepts as dynamics, tonality and spaciousness. … Read the full post
Where we listen to our music has a great effect on the quality of the sound we hear. However as we refine our audio systems we tend to forget our listening room. Acoustics is a complex subject and I’m not planning to make an acoustician of you. However I do hope in this post and others to help you understand some of the issues and guide how you might want to set up your listening room.… Read the full post
Ray Dolby, engineer and inventor of Dolby noise reduction, has died today of lukemia at the age of 80.
Dr. Dolby was the founder of Dolby Laboratories. Over his career Dolby made many significant contribution to the fields of audio and video engineering, including video tape recording and the noise reduction and surround sound technologies that bear his name. … Read the full post
Uppsala, Sweden – September 10, 2013 Swedish audio research firm Dirac Research, today announced a new version of their acclaimed room correction software product, Dirac Live Room Correction Suite.
The new Stereo Version is based on the same state-of-art technology as the original Full Version, with the main difference that it supports only two-channel playback.… Read the full post
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and Sony Electronics have both recently announced their support for and promotion of high resolution audio.
The CEA announcement of 2013-09-03 cited the benefits of high resolution audio. CEA research indicated that 9/10 consumers say that sound quality is important to them and 39% say that they are prepared to pay more for higher quality audio electronics.… Read the full post
The Last Night of the Proms 2013 will feature the UK premiere of the HMS Trinidad March, composed in 1941 by George Lloyd.
The HMS Trinidad was Royal Navy cruiser, named for the island of Trinidad, then a British Crown Colony. HMS Trinidad saw action in the Second World War as a convoy escort.… Read the full post