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Word went out among the small, frightened woodland animals in this part of upstate New York: If you come down with rabies, go to Art Dudley's place and die under his shed. The latest was a raccoon that showed up last Saturday morning with a face full of burdocks and a head full of pain. Before wedging himself beneath the floor of my freestanding shed, the dying animal produced a series of moans and yips that frightened even my dog, a Jack Russell terrier who appears to have been a Somali pirate in a previous life. For the remainder of that sunny afternoon, my family and I holed up inside the house, unenthused about being bitten by an unpredictable animal with a diseased brain and a foamy mouth. (Feel free to imagine your own political joke in this space. God knows I did.)

I began my July column by talking about how quickly things are changing these days in multichannel audio. What I didn't pay enough attention to is that some things can change quickly enough to create inefficiency. Given that most multichannel digital products are based on digital signal processing (DSP), and many are network-enabled, they can be updated with relative ease. Almost every preamplifier-processor or A/V receiver I've reviewed has needed a firmware update during the reviewing process, and such updates are de rigueur for Blu-ray players, as more and more features (!) are added to new releases. And in addition to providing new performance features, firmware updates often also include corrections for operational glitches that have slipped by the designers and their alpha and beta testers, no matter how assiduously they've done their work.

Big bands died out back in the 1950s, right? They went away when the jitterbug faded and folks began dancing to music other than swing? And then real jazz fans departed when the bebop soloists came along and made big-band players look clumsy and quaint?

Today, Peachtree Audio announced their new flagship asynchronous preamp/DAC, the Grand Pre, the first in a series of “Grand” products (a power amplifier and an all-in-one integrated amplifier will come later) and the first Peachtree component to have its design, final assembly, and final QC all take place in the US. For audiophiles hoping to "buy American," this should come as interesting news.

The 14th Annual Blues Masters at the Crossroads will be held on October 21st and 22nd at Blue Heaven Studios in Salina, Kansas.

This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com

Long before I became professionally involved with headphones, the Koss Porta Pro was a great little portable headphone. In fact, it was one of the first headphones designed particularly for portable applications. It has remained relatively unchanged to this day ...

... thank goodness. If it ain't broke ...

To celebrate today’s release of Girls’ sophomore record, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, the band will make an in-store performance at Grimey’s in Nashville, Tennessee, at 5pm on Friday, September 16. You won’t want to miss this. If you can’t make it to Grimey’s, you can still enjoy the show because this will be the very first nationwide in-store: The performance will be streamed live, one time only, across the websites of our most cherished, influential, and important independent record stores.