LATEST ADDITIONS

Back in the '90s, when I was young and marginally employed, one of the things I looked forward to most was going downstairs to my mailbox and finding a copy of Audiomart. The booklet arrived every two weeks, sometimes monthly, and was filled with classified ads for audio gear typeset in tiny, difficult-to-read print. In those pre-internet days, you needed a reference from a subscriber to sign up for Audiomart, which fostered a sense of community and safety, and if you wanted to respond to an ad, you had to call someone. Mostly I just enjoyed perusing the ads, but the prices for some of the vintage gear, particularly the less legendary stuff, were low enough that from time to time I could afford them.

Lucca Chesky’s LC1 bookshelf speaker was a hit at AXPONA and Capital Audiofest, so it made sense to see Chesky’s stand positioned prominently outside one of High End Munich’s large halls.

Two well-known French high-end audio brands, Kora and Diptyque Audio, debuted new products together at High End Munich.

Advance Paris. The name might evoke images of WWII’s French Resistance or even the cold suspense of The Day of the Jackal. But for audiophiles, Advance Paris has a different, equally compelling meaning: it’s a 30-year-old French hi-fi company that manufactures integrated amplifiers, stereo and mono power amps, preamps, and CD/network players.

The Spin Doctor, Michael Trei, and I visited the booth of Korf Audio’s Alexey Kornienkov, who showed two new products: the TA-CF9 monocrystallic sapphire arm tube/reference tonearm ($5600), and an updated version of his HS-A03 ceramic headshell ($215; all prices approximate when converted from Euros).

Much of the coverage of the passing of Marianne Faithfull has focused on her private life rather than her music. That is understandable—yet it's also regrettable because it misses the important fact that for 60 years, Faithfull produced an impressive catalog of music, releasing 21 solo studio albums plus collaborations, compilations, and live recordings.

To oversimplify, her career can be divided in two periods. The first, which received most of the attention in obituaries, was in the 1960s, when she was a face of the British Invasion. In the mid-'60s, with her soft, folky voice and very English pop, she enjoyed several US hits including "As Tears Go By" and "Come and Stay with Me," both from her self-titled 1965 debut album, though "As Tears Go By" was released as a single in 1964. The other charting singles were "This Little Bird" and "Summer Nights," both from her second album, The World of Marianne Faithfull. ("Go Away from My World," from the same album, also charted in the US—barely.)

As someone who has repeatedly reaped the sonic benefits of MQA, I found the MQA Labs press release tantalizing. "MQA Labs Debuts FOQUS ADC Design with First Ever Demonstration, Showcases Full Technology Suite," it declared, then continued, "Highlights will include a first listen to audio captured with a FOQUS ADC chip, showcasing the enhanced clarity made possible by a reimagined decimation process." The press release promised further surprises, including "a walk-through of our new and upcoming studio plug-ins, offering creators powerful tools for managing impulse response and noise shaping," and "a showcase of QRONO d2a, our playback solution that delivers unmatched transparency and time performance across all audio formats."