LATEST ADDITIONS

German speaker and electronics manufacturer MBL Akustikgeräte has been acquired by MBL International GmbH, a new subsidiary of China’s Chow Tai Seng. MBL says the deal secures the company’s long-term future and is a step toward resolving ongoing insolvency proceedings.

Way back in my ignorant youth I thought that Pablo Records, the label of jazz producer/promoter legend Norman Granz, was where jazz artists went to fade away, where they were put out to pasture. I thought the black discs inside Pablo's black-and-white jackets, which depicted jazz greats tracking sessions in their twilight years, couldn't compete with the music of younger jazz guns.

At 1am on September 17, 2025, Adam Wexler’s phone broke through his snores. He silenced the call and rolled over. Four hours later, the insistent ring jolted him awake. “When Ray, an amazing man who oversees the pier and runs everything around here, called me at 1am, I ignored it,” Wexler recalled, “though fire did cross my mind, because this space is entirely timber. Then my employee Robert Kapszewicz called, and I went to the warehouse at 5:30am.”

It takes audacity for a company that already builds one of the finest DACs on the planet, which is already expensive, to set out to build one that's so much better that it warrants an extra digit in the model number and a much higher price tag. But then CH Precision has never lacked audacity.

This month's Re-Tales takes us to Toronto again—though it's quite a different story than the one we told last month, in a different part of Toronto.

Today, Harman said that it has completed its acquisition of Sound United, adding Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Marantz, Classé, Definitive Technology, Polk Audio, and Boston Acoustics to its portfolio.

The UK Hi‑Fi Show Live is back at Ascot Racecourse’s Grandstand on September 27–28, 2025. Doors open 9:30am–5:30pm Saturday and 9:30am–5:00pm Sunday. The show website bills it as the UK’s longest‑running high‑end audio event.