LATEST ADDITIONS

Over the years, I've listened to many headphones, beginning with the Grado SR60s I bought with my first paycheck. Since then, I've been lucky enough to sample many exotic cans, but I always return to the admittedly controversial realization that I happen to prefer ... earphones.

Audio Vision San Francisco will host a two-day "Experience the Future of Sound" event on Saturday and Sunday, October 18–19, 2025, from 12–6pm at 1628 California Street in San Francisco, with seminars, system demos, and a giveaway drawing.

The largest regularly scheduled choral singing event in the world is the Estonian National Song Festival, or Laulupidu, which comes around about once every five years in Tallinn, Estonia's capital city. The numbers are pretty mind blowing.

Simaudio has introduced a streaming network streamer/integrated amplifier, the Moon 371, the first product in a new, more affordable series called Compass. Why Compass? The name evokes the name of the higher-end North series, introduced in 2023. "Compass guides you North," a Simaudio rep said at a press event in Boucherville, across the river from Montreal.

Those of us who review audio equipment, and even audiophiles who don't, often talk about our reference systems. The term implies a certain level of consistency. If you are changing components every week, your system probably lacks the stability to be a true reference. In the case of reviewers, this presents an irony . . .

Way back in the age when Stereophile's print magazine was the size of a theater playbill, common wisdom declared that the tube preamp was the ideal complement to solid state amplification.

Scott McGowan has left PS Audio to form Sprout HiFi, a new company built around a next-generation Sprout amplifier. The first Sprout HiFi product, a revamped version of the Sprout100, is projected for 2026, with email sign-ups open now.