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The SoundStage! Network’s multi-author blog about hi-fi, home theater, and more.

Details: Written by: Howard Kneller; Category: BloggingOnAudio; Created: 03 December 2019

I was back at New York City’s Chelsea Wine Vault on October 19, 2019, for another audio event, this time featuring product demonstrations by Dragonfire Acoustics and Theoretica Applied Physics. As I have written before, the Chelsea Wine Vault mixes a gorgeous retail wine store with high-end audio. Now-retired Wall Street tycoon Andrew Hoover III, who stores his wine collection in the Vault’s commercial wine-storage facility, has so many high-end audio systems that he uses the Vault as his system overflow space. High-end systems are everywhere!

Details: Written by: Howard Kneller; Category: Howard Kneller; Created: 06 November 2019

On October 31, 2019, I attended the grand opening of the first North American Focal Powered by Naim store, in sunny Scottsdale, Arizona. With stores already open in Seoul, South Korea, and Lyon, France, Focal’s and Naim’s French parent corporation, Vervent Audio Group, seeks to further expand the global footprint of these two well-known European audio brands by building a worldwide network of stores to showcase their products. (The Lyon store is called La Boutique du Son.)

Details: Written by: Doug Schneider; Category: Doug Schneider; Created: 12 October 2019

At the 2019 Toronto Audio Fest, to be held October 18 to 20, Simaudio will publicly display for the first time its new Moon 680D DAC-streamer, which is priced at $9000 (all prices are USD). On October 2, however, I visited product manager Dominique Poupart at the company’s factory in Boucherville, Quebec, Canada, to see the first 680D that came off the production line and learn more about it. I felt it important to go there because Simaudio has long been known for producing some of the best-sounding digital-playback products in the world.

Details: Written by: Howard Kneller; Category: Howard Kneller; Created: 03 October 2019

In August of this year, the New York and Long Island audiophile societies, respectively known as The Audiophile Society and The Audio Syndrome, hosted Andrew Jones, vice president of engineering for Elac. Each audio society’s events are typically well-attended; however, this meeting, held at a member’s home, was packed to the proverbial rafters. This was due not only to the attendance of members from both clubs, but the opportunity to witness Jones demonstrate Elac’s newest active speaker, the three-way, floorstanding Navis ARF-51 ($3999.96/pair, all prices USD), and provide insights concerning its design.

Details: Written by: Gordon Brockhouse; Category: Gordon Brockhouse; Created: 23 September 2019

On September 17, the audio world sucked in its collective breath after Amazon announced a new streaming service offering lossless CD-resolution and high-resolution music. Amazon Music HD has over 50 million CD-resolution tracks, plus “millions” of “Ultra HD” tracks with higher-than-CD resolution, up to 24-bit/192kHz.

Details: Written by: Roger Kanno; Category: Roger Kanno; Created: 22 September 2019

A recent business trip took me to Canada’s national capital, Ottawa. In addition to being the political center of Canada, it’s the home of the National Research Council, where SoundStage! performs its loudspeaker measurements. It’s also the location of electrostatic loudspeaker manufacturer Muraudio.

Details: Written by: Howard Kneller; Category: Howard Kneller; Created: 13 September 2019

Thirty years ago, audio manufacturers often conducted product demonstrations at audio society meetings. At these demos, the manufacturers gained exposure for their products, had the time to discuss the products in some depth, and happily for all, offered the demo samples at a discount at the event’s conclusion. But at some point, it became harder and harder for many of the societies to find manufacturers who were willing to hold demos, and the number of them gradually decreased.

Details: Written by: Howard Kneller; Category: Howard Kneller; Created: 11 September 2019

It was early in the morning of July 27, 2019, at New York City’s PlayStation Theater, when Aub Driver, Discog’s public relations lead, told me that he and his team, readied for the Crate Diggers Record Fair and Concert, were there for the long run. The event occurred in two parts. First, beginning at 10:00 a.m. and running throughout the day, an almost countless number of retailers sold records, tapes, CDs, and assorted musical paraphernalia from tables stacked with crates, thus the event’s name. That part of the event, which featured several live DJs, was free.

Details: Written by: Howard Kneller; Category: Howard Kneller; Created: 28 August 2019

In June of this year, I attended an interesting product pre-launch event at a unique venue. Let’s take the product first.

Details: Written by: Howard Kneller; Category: Howard Kneller; Created: 15 August 2019

Audio retailer Larry Borden (Distinctive Stereo in River Vale, New Jersey) and I recently paid a visit to Ralph Glasgal at his large, ultra-modern New Jersey home. Ralph, the inventor of three-dimensional (3D) imaging digital signal processing technology Ambiophonics and founder of the Ambiophonics Institute, is generally not known for aiming low. In fact, he hopes that Ambiophonics will succeed the stereo and 5.1 surround-sound formats. Before proceeding, though, I should address Ralph’s interesting background.

Details: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Category: Hans Wetzel; Created: 01 July 2019

I’ve been to a couple of dealer events over the years, and they’re all pretty similar. There are free snacks and usually alcohol. Two or three rooms might be set up for group listening, with a couple of talking heads -- sales guys or someone of note from the manufacturer -- giving a brief spiel, before talking through several pieces of well-trodden jazz music. Questions are encouraged, with brief answers the norm.

Details: Written by: Roger Kanno; Category: Roger Kanno; Created: 28 April 2019

Last week, Bowers & Wilkins announced its new Formation line of wireless products, which I first read about on our SoundStage! Australia website. It really piqued my interest.

Details: Written by: Howard Kneller; Category: Howard Kneller; Created: 03 April 2019

There wasn’t much advance notice, but it wouldn’t be a pop-up if there were. Recently, New Jersey-based Gingko Audio extended a last-minute invitation to a few audiophiles and fellow manufacturers to attend a pop-up audio demo on March 23. Word of the event was also spread to the New York and New Jersey audio societies.

Details: Written by: Howard Kneller; Category: Howard Kneller; Created: 19 March 2019

For whatever reason, it’s been only recently that I developed a profound appreciation of Joni Mitchell’s music. I was therefore looking forward to the “Linn Lounge Presents -- Joni Mitchell” event, held on March 2 at Accent on Music, which is located in Mount Kisco, New York, about an hour north of New York City.

Details: Written by: Howard Kneller; Category: Howard Kneller; Created: 06 March 2019

As I wrote before on Soundstage! Global, my past visits to New Jersey’s VPI Industries, a maker of turntables, phono stages, and record-cleaning machines, have been to the company’s showroom, VPI House. During this latest visit, I also toured the company’s factory, located less than five minutes from that location.

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