News

Just one week after Capital Audio Fest, the three-day New York Audio Show opens on Friday, November 10, in Manhattan's Park Lane Hotel. With two live references close by—the great outdoors of Central Park is just one block away, and Carnegie Hall is just one block farther in the other direction—the three-day show promises 25 or 26 active listening rooms and up to 100 brands.

That is me you see hanging out the car window like an old hound dog—ears flappin' in the slipstream—a big smile on my face. I am happy in the wind 'cause I am heading down to Rockville, Maryland to Capital Audio fest (starting today, November 3, and running though Sunday November 5) where I will see at least 60 fine audio rooms and I'll chatter on a panel about "The Virtues of Vintage" with old pals, Art Dudley, Joe Roberts, and Blackie Pagano. I'll be cruising the Rockville Hilton Hotel halls meeting new people and visiting the rooms of some old and (hopefully) some new friends. Tickets for entry are only $20 a day or $30 for the whole weekend.

From a small regional show, Gary Gill's seven-year old Capital Audiofest has grown into the East Coast Show of 2017. Set for November 3–5 in the Hilton Hotel Twinbrook in Rockville, MD, CAF will offer 57 exhibit rooms spread over three floors plus the hotel Atrium. That amounts to 93 exhibitors and over 200 brands, including a CanMania with 20 headphone vendors. For a show that, just last year, maxed out at 40 rooms with 65 exhibitors and 85 brands, this represents major growth.

With no fewer than 42 pages of audio equipment coverage! Astell&Kern's Ultimate potable player is featured on the cover and gets a workout from Mikey Fremer on multiple road trips. On the domestic front, we have reviews of digital products from Naim, Oppo, and Benchmark, Reed's Muse 3C turntable, and amplification from Rogue and Margules, while Jim Austin lives with Devialet's groundbreaking Phantom Gold wireless speakers.

Saturday October 14, Gig Harbor Audio (3019 Judson Street, Suite D, Gig Harbor, WA 98335), from 1–3pm, and Suncoast Audio (7353 International Place, Unit 309, Sarasota, FL 34240), from 12–4pm, are presenting audiophile events.

Hitting mailboxes, newsstands, and tablets today, the 204-page October Stereophile, offers 36 pages of audio equipment reports and the revised and updated "Recommended Components" listing. Featured on the cover is VPI's Prime Scout record player, reviewed by Art Dudley, who also offers auditions of speakers from Burwell and Wharfedale. Herb Reichert reviews the AMG Giro turntable, John Atkinson report on his time with KEF's Reference 5 loudspeaker, Robert Deutsch lives with PS Audio's Memory Player, and there are reviews of amplifiers from Dan D'Agostino, Rega, and Linear Tube Audio.

What was to have been the first Southern California-based T.H.E. Show organized without input from its late co-founder, Richard Beers, who died in 2016, has been postponed until 2018. The inaugural T.H.E. Show Anaheim, as the former T.H.E. Show Newport Beach is now called, was to have taken place September 22–24 at the Hilton Anaheim. The reasons for the late postponement are spelled out in a two-page letter to exhibitors, which was released on September 6 by Beers' close friend and long-time associate, Show President Maurice R. Jung.