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High-end audio dealer Audio Den of Long Island (2845 Middle Country Road, Lake Grove, NY 11755) is hosting a music evening Friday, July 24, 5:00–8:00pm, to launch Technics' new Premium and Reference series integrated amplifier, network player, and speakers in North America.

On Wednesday, July 22 (Raleigh) and Thursday, July 23 (Pineville), 5–9pm, Audio Advice (8621 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh; 11409 Carolina Place Parkway, Pineville) will host its annual Digital Living event, while on Friday, July 24, 6–8pm, Vintage King Audio (2826 Dogwood Place, Nashville) will host an evening seminar with AudioQuest's Steve Silberman, focusing on the tools and resources needed to turn a computer into a true high-resolution music source.

Ayre's 20th-Anniversary edition of its MX-R monoblock stands proud on this 132-page issue's cover. Inside, John Atkinson finds it to be one of the best-sounding amplifiers he's auditioned, while Fred Kaplan enthuses over the sound of Simaudio's Moon Evolution 860A amplifier and Jon Iverson finds much to enjoy with Rega's affordable DAC-R. Loudspeakers from Wilson Benesch, Falcon, and Magnepan are reviewed, with the littlest, cheapest Maggie earning the highest praise from Herb Reichert.

Alma Music and Audio (5759 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla, CA 92037) will host a very special event on Saturday, July 18 and Sunday, July 19 at their retail showroom just north of San Diego. A host of audio luminaries will be there to demonstrate their products and answer questions including Dan D'Agostino of D'Agostino Master Audio Systems, Yoav Geva of YG Acoustics, Joe Kubala of Kubala-Sosna cables, Vince Galbo of MSB Technology, and Harry Lee and Sally Jeung of Aurender.

I ran across the poster above in Canada HiFi magazine: an announcement of the launch of a new audio store with an evening of vinyl playback. Located in the town of Orangeville, Ontario (population 30,000, about an hour's drive from Toronto), the store, with the intriguing name of Aardvark Boutique Audio, hadn't opened yet, but the event, taking place in the Orangeville Opera House, promised "Canadian Musicians On Vinyl—In Amazing Hi Fi Sound." I had to go and check it out.

In a major plus for the accessibility of classical music on the web, Google Play Music recently launched its Classical Live initiative. Through an exclusive contract with five major symphony orchestras—Boston Symphony Orchestra and new Music Director Andris Nelsons, The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, London Symphony Orchestra and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, New York Philharmonic and Music Director Alan Gilbert, and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam and Music Director Mariss Jansons—the organizations will offer live recordings for download and streaming exclusively on Google Play for the first six months they are made public.

Established in 1980 by Victor Sima as Sima Electronics, Canadian audio company Moon by Simaudio Ltd. celebrates its 35th year in the audio business in 2015—or, as its ads say, "35 years of passion." To mark the event, Simaudio had a party at Executive Stereo, their Toronto dealer (see photo above). It was a fairly low-key event, with a handful of Toronto-area audio journalists—including yours truly—and representatives of Simaudio attending.

The New Music Seminar 2015 was a three-day (June 21,22, and 23) conference held in New York that invited music industry insiders to dialog on the current state and potential future of the music delivery business. Right away I knew I wasn't at CES...

This is the front end of the system Essential Audio of Barrington, IL be using on Saturday June 27 and Sunday, June 28, 2015 to demonstrate Bricasti Design's M1 DAC (top right) and M28 monoblock amplifiers. Guest of honor will be Bricasti Design president Brian Zolner, who will be demonstrating and talking about his products. Essential Audio is the first US dealer to have the new Aurender N10 music server (top left), which will be on demonstration with the Bricasti components.

Just three months after buying 13 vintage record presses, Chad Kassem of Acoustic Sounds (above) has purchased The Mastering Lab (TML), the legendary facility of Grammy Award-winning mastering engineer, Doug Sax, who died of cancer on April 2 at the age of 78...