t has been a while since we have talked about convergence. Many of our reviewers use audio or media servers in their systems based on devices like the Squeezebox or by simply connecting a laptop to their DAC or A/V processor. SE2 Labs takes convergence a step further -- a big step further. The company is now shipping the ITC One (Integrated Theater Console), which is described as a compact, all-in-one, plug-and-play home-entertainment system. Customers can configure the system to their specifications and SE2 will then build the unit and ship it within two weeks. The list of components that can be included are: Blu-ray Disc drive, Apple TV, DirectTV, Dish Network or other national cable provider DVR, AMX NetLinx control system, Apple Video iPod dock, Xbox 360, Windows Media Center and Nintendo Wii. Of note to audio/video enthusiasts is the unit’s use of a Bryston  preamp/processor, Vidikron video processor, Transparent Audio power conditioning and cabling, and IcePower amplifiers. The ITC One comes with a five-year warranty and has a price of $25,000 (although the exact configuration pertaining to this price was not specified).

Speaking of Bryston, Audio Advisor has added Bryston to its catalog of products. In fact, Audio Advisor offers an impressive selection of Bryston components, including power amps, preamps, integrated amps and even the BCD-1 CD player and BDA-1 outboard DAC. Audio Advisor also now offers NAD Master Series components and PSB Synchrony loudspeakers in addition to the many other high-quality brands the company sells. If you don’t have a Bryston, NAD or PSB dealer in your area, check out Audio Advisor at www.audioadvisor.com. They offer a 30-day money-back guarantee on all products sold.

Large retail chains continue to influence the distribution of music by securing exclusive sales agreements or exclusive content. Retailers such as Best Buy, Future Shop (Canada), Target, Wal-Mart and even Starbucks have had releases with exclusive material available only on copies purchased in their stores or exclusive rights to sales for a predetermined length of time. Last month, Cold Play released Viva La Vida, which quickly rose to the top of the CD and digital-download charts, and the band will begin touring in July in support of the album.

Now Best Buy is offering advanced sales of Cold Play concert tickets to members of its Reward Zone customer-incentive program. Members were able to request one of a limited number of codes that would allow them to purchase tickets prior to their release to the general public. These codes were distributed on a first-come, first-served basis and did not guarantee the purchase of tickets, as the codes could be used for any one of multiple concert locations and presumably only a limited number of tickets were available for presale at each venue.

SoundStage! BackStage! No.110

B&W has come up with a unique concept in music distribution. The B&W Music Club (www.bowers-wilkins.com/sos) will feature a new artist each month who will be commissioned to produce an album available exclusively by download from the website for only that month. Once the album is no longer available for download, all rights revert back to the artist. The price to join the club is £23.95 for six months or £33.95 for a year. Although this is relatively expensive (a British pound is approximately $2 USD), it allows the download of an exclusive DRM-free (Digital Rights Management) album each month in either high-quality Apple Lossless or FLAC format. The albums will be produced at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studio. Gabriel, who is a member of B&W’s Society of Sound, founded Real World with the intent of fostering the development of musicians from around the world. He believes "that it must be possible for any talented musician in the world, regardless of nationality or home, to reach an international public." When reminiscing about the wide range of musicians from different cultures that have visited Real World, Gabriel noted that, "Some would arrive with prayer mats, others with hookers. But, like hotelkeepers, a studio should not be in the business of preaching to its clients. We were there to facilitate the creative process."

D&M Holdings, the parent company of such audio brands as Denon, McIntosh, Snell and Boston Acoustics, has entered into an agreement to sell 100% of its shares to Bain Capital Partners LLC. Mergers and acquisitions in the audio industry are becoming more and more common, and this move is expected to have little effect on the operations of these companies. According to Doug Griesbach, president of D&M Canada, "The transition of ownership will be transparent to customers."

Marantz, also a D&M company, is set to release the $1999 BD8002 Blu-ray Disc player this month. Featuring an HDMI 1.3a output, it should be capable of transmitting all of the latest high-resolution audio formats (Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio) in either their native bitstreams or transcoded to PCM. It also features 7.1-channel analog audio outputs. The BD8002 has nearly identical specifications to Denon’s $1999 DVD-3800BCDI Blu-ray Disc player.

Finally, Apple announced last month that the five billionth song had been downloaded from their iTunes online store. Sales figures released by Apple indicate that sales growth has begun to slow from the phenomenal rate enjoyed in the first few years of the iTunes store. While the rate of iTunes growth is slowing, it is nonetheless still growing -- not something that we can say about the music industry in general. Perhaps Apple is reaching some kind of saturation point for iPods, or maybe competition is playing a role. While much of the content available from iTunes still contains DRM, Amazon offers a huge selection of MP3 files encoded with a variable bit rate, claimed to average 256 kbps without any copy restrictions, for $0.99 a song. Still, iTunes is projected to sell close to two billion songs in the next year, making Apple the second-largest music retailer behind only Wal-Mart.

Until next month…

Comments?
Let 'er rip to feedback@soundstage.com