R&B and Soul

Audiophiles, rejoice! New high-end dock retrieves digital audio signals from iPods!

Just received a preview from next week's CES show in Las Vegas--Wadia Digital, a high-end audio company will be demonstrating the first digital player dock to retrieve a direct digital signal from iPods. As a result, the iTransport will provide CD-quality resolution from full-resolution file formats such as .WAV and AppleLossless.

The iTransport (SRP: $349) will turn any currently available iPod player into a high-end media server by providing a bit-perfect digital audio output to an audio/video system. The really cool thing about the device is that it can bypass the player's internal D/A conversion and … Read more

iTunes vs physical media, and the urge to purge

I own 3,000 CDs and 4,000 LPs. They take up a lot of space in my apartment, and that's OK with me. They're lined up in metal racks, wood shelving, and stacked up in piles on the floor. But a lot of my friends with just a few hundred CDs are in a big hurry to dump them into their computers and get rid of the discs. I just had lunch yesterday with an audiophile friend who is in the midst of transferring all of his CDs as WAV files to his new HD. As always … Read more

Box sets make good gifts

While some of us begin our holiday shopping while still full on Thanksgiving dinner, others wait until the last minute. If you're somewhere in the middle, you're probably looking for ideas right about...now. Well, nothing says "I love you" like a box set. We just added timeless collections by iconic artists such as Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, and Frank Sinatra. So, if you're looking for gifts for mom, dad, Aunt Peggy, Cousin Timmy, or simply a friend who's into the classics, check out these fine box sets. And and enjoy this free box set playlist while you browse.

Billie Holiday

This new 80-song collection focuses on Holiday's Columbia years (1933-1944), by most accounts her finest period. It's hard to argue with that. Lady Day's coyness and vulnerability rarely stand in sharper relief, and her stellar session musicians--including Benny Goodman--mourn right along.

Bob Dylan

The master's new three-disc box set meets you wherever you are: beginners will find an exhaustive introduction, old fans a taste of the stunning recent recordings, and casual listeners a chance for one-stop shopping. To all, it will show a truly American artiste constantly refining what that means.

Sufjan Stevens… Read more

Free MP3s courtesy of Scion Audio Visual and Daptone Records

As if the original tracks weren't dope enough, Scion Audio Visual has released Scion CD Sampler - Volume 19: Daptone Records Remixed, featuring all-star producers like DJ Spinna, Large Professor, Mark Ronson, Kenny Dope, Ticklah, and Hank Shocklee reworking classic tracks from Daptone artists Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, The Sugarman Three & Co., The Budos Band, and The Daktaris.… Read more

Get a sneak peek at Gibson's Robot Guitar

What do you get when you combine a guitar loaded with robotic technology with one of the most talented musicians of this day and age? Hopefully, one hell of a show.

Guitarist/musician/former choir boy Martin Luther will be showcasing Gibson's self-tuning Robot Guitar at a free show in San Rafael, Calif.

Luther, who recorded the critically acclaimed album Rebel Soul Music in 2004 and recently toured with The Roots, will play the Bananas At Large instrument store on Monday, December 3.

Following the show, which starts at 12:30 p.m., there will be a public question-and-answer … Read more

Christmas songs, both low and high

Are you ready for the holidays? We realize that for some people that's a heavy-duty question. Of course, many find Christmastime to be the jolly, feel-good season of sharing and caring so many of us read about in storybooks and maybe even experienced during childhood. (And to those who do, we raise a toast.) For others, however, the mere mention of words like "Santa," "sleigh," "snow," and "drummer boy" just might cause a stroke.… Read more

Axiom Audiobyte: The Bentley of PC speakers?

Most PC speakers are afterthoughts--the computer equivalent of those awful earbud headphones that come bundled "for free" with portable media players. But Canada's Axiom Audio is offering a high-end alternative with its new Audiobyte PC speakers. At 6.5 inches high by 5.5 inches wide by 4 inches deep, the stereo speakers aren't too much larger than standard computer audio offerings, but they're effectively miniaturized versions of high-quality bookshelf speakers, sporting two-way designs with a 1-inch titanium dome tweeter and 3-inch aluminum cone woofer.

The Audiobyte is now available in a variety of finishes … Read more

Warner Music: It was wrong to go to war with our customers [Gasp!]

Truth will prevail, even when it first has to minnow its way through the calcified brain of a music-industry chief. At least, this is the story coming out of the GSMA Mobile Asia Conference, as reported by MacUser. Edgar Bronfman, a senior Warner Brothers executive, admitted to institutional incompetence:

We used to fool ourselves. We used to think our content was perfect just exactly as it was. We expected our business would remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong. How were we wrong? By standing still or moving at a glacial pace, we inadvertently went to war with consumers by denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find and as a result of course, consumers won."

As TechCrunch notes, it's actually pretty amazing to hear the music chief openly admitting that the music industry considers[ed] its customers hostile combatants on the other side of a war.

Sad. But what may be worse is that Bronfman can't seem to understand the word "choice," as revealed by a later comment:… Read more

Prince now sues for peace with fan sites

Prince is close to making up with three fan sites that spent the past week trading nasty publicity releases with the purple music king.

Prince Fans United (PFU), a group formed by three fan sites dedicated to Prince; Housequake.com, Prince.org, and Princefams.com, was trying to hammer out an agreement with the artist's representatives on Wednesday, according to Gavin McLaughlin, a spokesman for the group.

PFU was formed after Prince allegedly demanded that the sites remove all "photographs, images, lyrics, album covers and anything linked to Prince's likeness," the site operators claimed.

"We'… Read more