News

Thursday–Saturday, September 17–19: HiFi Buys (3157 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta) will celebrate the Grand Opening of their new Buckhead store. To kick things off, Thursday, September 17, 7–9pm: Michael Fremer of AnalogPlanet.com and Stereophile will be on hand to discuss all things analog...

Often copied, never equaled, Stereophile's 40-page "Recommended Components" listing is featured in our October issue, which will hit newsstands, mailboxes, iPads, and Android tablets this coming week...

On September 8, the international custom-installation trade association CEDIA named J. Robert Stuart, co-founder of Meridian Audio Ltd. and Inventor of MQA, as this year's Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. Stuart will be recognized at the annual CEDIA Awards Celebration at CEDIA EXPO on October 17, 2015.

An opportunity to return to Sonor Filtronique came sooner than expected: I was invited there for a September 4 new-product launch co-sponsored by AudioQuest, Wilson Audio, Audio Research, and dCS America. Encouraged by the dual prospects of good sound and a chance to enjoy the beautiful city of Montreal without an overcoat, I booked my train ticket right away.

On Friday, September 4, from 6 to 10pm, Sonor Filtronique (9343 Rue Lajeunesse, Montreal) will host a special event with Peter McGrath of Wilson Audio Specialties, John Quick of dCS, Dave Gordon of Audio Research, and Garth Powell of AudioQuest. Featured gear will include Wilson's Sabrina loudspeakers, dCS's Vivaldi DAC, ARC's GSi75 integrated amplifier, and AudioQuest's new Niagara 7000 AC power management system, pictured above. There will be 45-minute seminars held throughout the evening.

We were saddened to hear of the death of loudspeaker designer Bobby Palkovic, apparently by his own hand. We had published positive reviews of Bobby's Merlin speakers, including one of his VSM Millennium design and the VSM-MX at www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/439/index.html. Following is the news posted to Facebook by Bobby's friend, Rich Brkich of audio retailer Signature Sound...

My friend and renowned tube polymath J.C Morrison says, "Blackie Pagano is sweet, smart, and has a devious sense of humor . . ." And now Blackie has just posted an original hand-built "bass guitar preamp" project called the "The Perfect Storm" on Kickstarter.