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Boris Blank has a cold, and three days after meeting him in his hometown of Zurich, I do too. This seems apt. Metaphorically, he's been infecting me for decades.

For almost 45 years, Yello, the pioneering Swiss band that Blank formed with singer Dieter Meier, has created witty electropop that provokes joy and awe in attentive listeners. You can dance to most of this music, of course—it's often hard not to—but its allure, its spell, goes deeper. For one thing, Yello's music is delightfully visual. Cinema for the ears.

So there I was, in the parking lot of the Rockville Hilton, cigar smoke curling into the crisp autumn air, grilling Gary Gill about his brainchild, Capital Audio Fest (CAF). This East Coast audio extravaganza has grown into a monster, bursting at the seams of its Rockville venue.

I spent the second three-and-a-half years of my life living with my family in Sweden. Our home was on an island just outside of Stockholm called Lidingö, which locals tell me today is like the Beverly Hills of Stockholm, a fancy place where the rich and famous live. Fifty-nine years ago, it wasn't quite so fancy; it just seemed like a cool place for a little kid from New York City to grow up.

I can't honestly say I remember many details about my life between the ages of three and a half and seven, yet apparently some of that Swedish way of thinking ended up influencing my life view, specifically, how Swedes approach consumer goods and purchasing decisions.

Most of the provocative and charismatic popular music made today is an unclassifiable mixture—a hybrid of whatever styles, sounds, and instruments happen to move its creators. Violinist Jenny Scheinman not only composes multi-hued music that is singularly her own, but she lives in two very different musical worlds: the progressive world of jazz, and the more song- and tradition-based environs of Americana.

Scheinman's latest solo album, All Species Parade, released in October 2024 on the Royal Potato Family label, is a classic example of her unique vision and chameleon-like ability to blend seamlessly into disparate musical contexts, with nods to both jazz and Americana.

In my early years in audio, I witnessed the rise and fall of the AM-FM receiver, first in vacuum tube mono and later in solid state stereo. Some of them grew to be behemoths, supporting multiple inputs, equalizers, dual speaker zones, and powerful amplifiers. When radio sources receded in popularity and with the rise of CDs, cable TV, and DVD, radio receivers were replaced by A/V receivers in the mainstream market.

Today, the ascension of streaming as the conduit for both audio and video content has nudged these, too, from the center stage. One can stream content from the bewildering variety of products with internet access including cell phones, smart TVs, almost any computer, and of course, dedicated streaming devices from the cheap-and-cheerful to seriously audiophile. If your music is on the web or on a NAS, many of these will let you browse for it, find it, and play it.

No one I know enjoys dating. Some friends detest it so much they won't go near it. Maybe they believe the love of their life is waiting to be discovered at a Zumba class or in line at the King Kullen. Or maybe they've quietly given up. Admit it: Dating offers a low probability of success, and if you think too much about just how low, the whole thing begins to seem ridiculous. Yet how do you meet a potential partner without, well, meeting them?

German audio manufacturer beyerdynamic has launched updated versions of its premium studio headphones: the DT 1770 PRO MKII and DT 1990 PRO MKII. These models feature the newly developed TESLA.45 driver, designed to improve sound quality and reduce distortion.