LATEST ADDITIONS

During the past decade and a half, the trips I've taken have tended to be for magazine stories. I love to travel, but as a New Yorker living on a writer's income, I figure it makes more sense to do it on someone else's dime and stay in nicer places than I could afford otherwise. The downside is that these trips don't feel like vacations, or even particularly restful: My time tends to be taken up with interviews, overly elaborate meals eaten (or tasted) in the company of chefs and winemakers, weeks when I sometimes stay in four hotels, and (gratefully infrequent) run-ins with publicists.

Musical Fidelity has announced the B1xi, a new integrated amplifier that marks the debut of its reimagined B-Series. Drawing inspiration from the original B1 released in the 1990s, the B1xi features a fully discrete class-A/B design and omits displays and wireless streaming in favor of analog simplicity.

AudioQuest has announced Brave Heart, a new ZERO-Tech speaker cable positioned below its Mythical series in price but incorporating many of the same materials and design principles.

I have lost track of how many loudspeakers I have measured with DRA Labs' MLSSA system since Stereophile started accompanying its reviews with measurements in the late 1980s, but it must be close to 1000. Most of those speakers have long since faded from my memory, but there are some whose excellent measurements stick in my mind. One such is the Magico S5 Mk.II I reviewed in February 2017.

Ray Kimber founded his enterprise in the late 1970s, and for the last half-century has withstood the ravages of this difficult market. He first got involved in cable technology while addressing the problems of induced interference in audio connections where high-power installation lighting was involved, especially early thyristor-controlled systems.

On July 10, EveAnna Manley, co-founder and owner of Manley Labs of Chino, California, surprised her social media followers by announcing the sale of Manley Labs. The buyer is Dirk Ulrich, founder of Brainworx Audio and Plugin Alliance.

By my estimation, this year's High End hi-fi show—the last in Munich before the world's largest audio show moves to Vienna—was a major success, perhaps the first I've attended since the pandemic that managed to completely escape that shadow. Every day but Sunday it was very busy—sometimes too busy; on the busiest days, the hallways at the MOC convention center reminded me of NYC's Fifth Avenue on Black Friday, an experience I've had once and hope to never have again. Most important: I heard a lot of really good sound.