News

Pro-Ject Audio System's founder and President Heinz Lichtenegger debuted three products in Manhattan this past April 28. Among the upbeat Austrian's new wares were the Vertical turntable (above), the Classic turntable, and the DAC Box DS2 Ultra. Presented at World of McIntosh's SoHo townhouse, visitors were given a tour of the 1890s-built former New York City power substation, now beautifully renovated and stuffed floor to ceiling with audio gear from Sonus Faber, McIntosh, and of course, Pro-Ject.

Saturday April 30 and Sunday May 1, at 11am, Alma Music and Audio (5759 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla, CA 92037) will be celebrating its one-year anniversary with a special "Music Talks" event featuring darTZeel and Evolution Acoustics products. Guests will include darTZeel's Hervé Deletraz and Jonathan Tinn and Kevin Malmgren, the team behind Evolution Acoustics.

Thursday, April 28, 5–8pm, HiFi Buys (3157 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta) will host its inaugural Guys' Night Out event—an evening of cars, cigars, craft whiskeys, hi-fi presentations, and luxury showcases, with a focus on creating unforgettable, high-quality experiences. Featured hi-fi brands include Audio Research Corporation, Ayre Acoustics, Brinkmann Audio, PrimaLuna, and AudioQuest.

Some of my recent delights have come from recordings by BMOP, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, under the direction of Gil Rose. So I was thrilled to hear that BMOP had recorded their highly praised performance of David Del Tredici's Child Alice, a sprawling romantic work for soprano and orchestra. Please go to www.kickstarter.com/projects/bmopsound/david-del-tredici-child-alice now and we will all be able to enjoy Child Alice. . .

Tomorrow, Saturday April 23, from 4–10pm, JS Audio (4919 St. Elmo Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814) is hosting a Wilson/dCS/Dan D'Agostino/Audio Research/Nordost event. Wilson's Peter McGrath will be introducing the new Alexx loudspeaker; Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems President of Sales, Bill Mckiegan, will be showing the iconic company's new amplifiers; John Quick of dCS will be discussing the latest developments in their Vivaldi (2.0), Rossini, and Debussy ranges; Dave Gordon will be present the new Reference 6 and Reference Phono 3 preamplifiers, along with the New Ref 150 SE amplifier; and Michael Taylor from Nordost will be demming the Odin 2 Reference cables and, it is hoped, he will have the New Valhalla 2 USB Cable for attendees to audition.

Sad, sad news - and he did the best SuperBowl Show evah!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NN3gsSf-Ys

One of my music heroes.

AudioVisionSF (1628 California Street, San Francisco) and Lavish HiFi (1044 4th Street, Santa Rosa) are holding loudspeaker set-uos today, 7:30–9:30pm (AVSF) and tomorrow, 2–7pm (Lavish) featuring Benno Meldgaard (Chief Designer, pictured above at the 2014 RMAF) and Michael Vamos of GamuT.

The least-expensive Wilson speaker and the most-expensive Vandersteen speaker go head-to head in the May issue, accompanied by reviews of PS Audio's affordable DSD DAC, Schiit's high-value Ragnarok integrated amplifier, Luxman's high-performance EQ-500 phono preamplifier, Vandersteen's unique monoblock amplifier . . .

First, The Audio Salon (Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Unit F1, Santa Monica, CA 90404) is hosting a special Nagra event Saturday, April 16, from 4pm–8pm.

Second, Evolution Audio & Video (5341 Derry Avenue, Suite S, Agoura Hills, CA 91301) is hosting MartinLogan events on Friday April 15 (noon–6pm) and Saturday April 16 (noon–5pm).

On Saturday, April 16, beginning at 9:30am, NYC audio retailer In Living Stereo (2 Great Jones Street, New York, NY 10012) is celebrating Record Store Day with a day of in-store performances, shopping for limited-edition RSD releases, and special giveaways.