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What does it mean to be Stereophile's Product of the Year? It's an honor, certainly, and probably helps the winner sell more products, but is there anything more we can say about it?

The PotY competition is the culmination of a whole year of the magazine's work, starting with the choice of products to review. Only products we review or consider carefully in a column qualify for the competition, and every product we review is eligible for the competition: We only review products we think will have a decent shot at being among the best.

When scouring the labyrinthine halls of big audio shows for products to review in Stereophile, I use three main markers to determine which rooms to visit: a must-hear designation from Editor Jim Austin; a company or brand whose products always light my fire; and systems fellow Stereophile correspondents have described, in a text or an in-person conversation, as worth checking out. Other times, though, I just follow my nose.

The Kinks: Muswell Hillbillies/Everybody's in Show-Biz
BMG BMGCAT720DBOX (6 LP, 4 CD, Blu-ray). 2022. Ray Davies, Andrew Sandoval, prods.; Mike Bobak, Matt Jaggar, Kevin Gray, others, engs.
Performance ****
Sonics ***½

Despite world-class songwriting and great singing from Ray Davies, solid guitar work from brother Dave, a run of six classic albums from Face to Face (1966) to Muswell Hillbillies (1971), multiple hit singles and albums in the US and the UK, the Kinks are rarely mentioned, on either side of the Atlantic, in the same breath as contemporaries the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Why is that?

Fidelis Distribution and Heretic Loudspeakers Co. brought their high-sensitivity Heretic AD612 loudspeakers ($9290/pair) to CAF, paired with CEC and Lab 12 equipment.

John Wolff brought his Classic Audio Loudspeakers T-3.4 Field Coils ($29,500/pair) to the Show. This speaker comprised an all wood cabinet, 300 HTZ radial wood Tractix horn, two 15" woofers, a "4" beryllium tweeter diaphragm by Truextent loaded into 6475 2" throat field-coil compression driver," and a 16 ohms impedance. They weigh 350lb apiece.

Legacy Audio founder and designer Bill Dudleston (center) brought his Aeris and Calibre loudspeakers to CAF, joined by Now Listen Here's James Thompson (left) and Aaron Sherrick (right).

India's Rethm loudspeakers, California's Ampsandsound, and China's Auralic combined forces to make unique sounds at CAF 2022.