Other Tech

Like many other A/V stores, California Soundworks (californiasoundworks.com, 661-945-0971) started out as a home stereo store selling gear to audiophiles. That was back in 1979.

In a basement in 1975, back when turntables were big business and Linda Ronstadt ruled the airwaves, three friends started Definitive Audio (definitive.com, 206-524-6633). In its early days, the high-end store sold two-channel gear by the likes of Mark Levinson and Magnepan. There was no video.

You did commentary tracks on the first two episodes ["License to Steele" and "Tempered Steele"] along with your co-creator, Robert Butler.

I find it interesting that you chose to start releasing The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour on DVD (Time Life) with a collection of the best episodes from Season 3 (1968-69). That's the season we got fired from CBS. I was very, very, very reluctant to put this show out on home video.

Like most Home Theater readers, I’ve known SRS Labs primarily as the company that does virtual surround sound and other audio solutions for HDTVs and soundbars—features largely dismissed by serious enthusiasts as lightweight hocus-pocus. So it was with some skepticism that, back in March, I rolled into the firm’s Santa Ana, California, headquarters for a private demo of some new surround sound technology.

02/15/2006 Last night I attended a stupendous concert at Carnegie Hall: the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from Amsterdam conducted by Mariss Jansons played Shostakovich