LATEST ADDITIONS

I heard my first genuinely awesome hi-fi through a pair of Tannoy speakers. The 15" Monitor Blacks were installed in wardrobe-sized Siemens cabinets that the owner had wrangled from a decommissioned recording studio in Austria. They were hooked up to a pair of vintage McIntosh mono amps.

A phono cartridge is a mechanical-electrical thing with a single job: tracking a squiggly spiral groove as accurately as possible and converting that mechanical tracking into an electrical signal. (Okay, maybe that's two jobs.) The process can seem miraculous.

Welcome to Toronto Audiofest! Robert Schryer gives us his first impressions from the show in T.O. that ran from October 16–18, 2026.

Kudos to Audio Research for a tastefully designed website that wastes no words making its points. Audio Research proclaims its Reference 20 line-stage preamplifier "the culmination of a singular objective: to advance beyond the established limits of preamplifier architecture and redefine what is possible in line-stage performance."

Four years ago last August, I went to Port Washington, New York, on Long Island, to visit the North Shore Animal League America's (NSALA's) adoption shelter. It was a memorable day: We brought home our beautiful and beloved Ella, aka Ella Wren. But this column is not about puppies. It's about tequila and blind testing.

Randy Ingram: Sound Within: A Celebration of Bill Evans; Matt Slocum: A Revolving Alliance; Kenny Barron/Ray Drummond/Ben Riley: So Many Lovely Things: Live in Brecon.