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Audio Note UK is one of those companies that makes entire systems, including cables, so that you don't need to look elsewhere for compatible products—same-brand audiophile systems have the theoretical advantage of using components that were made to work well together. This can also, theoretically, avoid misfires when trying to match different components, especially those made by people who don't share the same design philosophies, or just don't listen to music the same way.

The Anthem/Paradigm system may have been simply assembled, but don't let that fool you into thinking it wasn't sophisticated technologically or sound-wise. The Anthem STR integrated ($6000) outputs 200Wpc, comes with a hi-rez DAC, a USB audio input that supports up to 32/384 PCM, a pair of MM/MC phono inputs, and offers room correction. The speakers being fed by the Anthem were the fancy-looking five-driver, 95dB-sensitive, class-D bass-amplified Paradigm Founder 120H speakers ($11,000/pair; review to appear in the December issue of Stereophile).

The speakers on display in the Kennedy room included two pairs of Focal 926s, one of which, standing higher than the other, were threaded with IsoAcoustics Gaia ll feet, the other with the stock feet. Electronics included a Naim ND5 SS2 streamer ($5540 US), which comes with four 24/192 digital inputs, and a 70Wpc Naim Nait SX 3 integrated amp ($5540 US), while cabling consisted of Kimber Kable's Carbon series.

And now for the show's first world premiere—The Baetis Audio Reference 4 music server ($12,000), which is chockfull of features and compatible with every streaming service available, as well as being a Roon endpoint.

The Tri-Art room, the first I visited, started me off on a good foot. It consisted of a presentation given by owner Steve Ginsberg and his colleague Jim Leveille, and it was fascinating. Tri-Art, if you recall from previous show reports, is the audio company that makes a series of electronics and open-baffle speakers whose enclosures, plus "jelly bean" acoustic treatments, are made out of solid bamboo. Steve loves bamboo as a material for its tonal qualities and also because bamboo is so rigid and impervious to splintering, you can mill it like you would metal, with a CNC machine. I also think bamboo has a wholesome, organic, warm aesthetic that's mother-earth sculpture-like.

During my 30-odd years inhabiting New York City's Greenwich Village, I've seen many things come and go. Today's Village buzzes, blasts, and bellows in every direction, change itself the only constant.

I remember, at High End Munich 2019, setting eyes on one of the most attractive loudspeakers I'd ever seen, in the color that, as I now know, Estelon calls Ocean Mystery. I remember it as a passive demo, no music playing, seen through glass; whether that memory is strictly accurate I don't know. Memories are funny things.