Word: hifi
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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DESPITE the growing sway of TV and hifi, despite a bounding passion for sports, despite increasing crime, flourishing liquor consumption, marriages, divorces and other distractions, the U.S. somehow manages to keep on reading-or at least buying-more books. If the number of books published and bought were the only criterion, 1954 was a big year. Publisher's Weekly, the industry's statistician, guessed that 1953's alltime high of 12,050 new titles would be equaled or surpassed by Dec. 31. It seemed likely that 1953's record sale of an estimated 600 million copies...
...Hifi" addicts were enthused over binaural sound, which gives something like the same effect to the ear that the eye gets from...
...which it hopes will revolutionize the phonograph industry just as its long playing records changed the record business. Inside the box was Columbia's new high fidelity phonograph (the 360) designed by Dr. Peter Goldmark, who developed Columbia's LPs. Until last week, most "hifi" sets, which reproduce music in the home with the clarity and realism of the concert hall, were custom-made from standard parts by small radio & phonograph shops at a cost of from...
Dancers of Bali Gamelan Orchestra (Columbia). Deep gongs, cymbals, gangsas (marimbas), reyongs (small tuned gongs), angklungs (rattles) and finger-drums, played with astonishing variety of tone and precisely stumbling rhythms by the Indonesian musicians now touring the U.S. (TiME, Oct. 6). Good fun, and a rattling good test for "hifi" phonographs...
Last week's exhibitions proved that binaural recordings work. But until the major record and phonograph companies find a way to bring the costs of the system down, it will likely remain just a novelty for the well-heeled hifi. Main drawbacks at present: 1) there is no repertory of double-grooved records-only a few specimen recordings, and 2) a home system for playback might cost twice as much as today's equipment...