News

On March 13, May Belt of PWB Electronics announced via e-mail that Peter W. Belt, the company's founder and her husband of many years, passed away on February 17. He was 87.

The 12th annual Music Matters event, held at Definitive Audio's Seattle location on March 9, featured six complete systems plus an Auralic-driven headphone display and static Rega turntable corner. All but the silent display showcased recorded music in its finest light. By the end of the evening, it was clear why Music Matters has earned a reputation as the top retailer-sponsored audio event in the USA.

Thursday March 9, 5–9:00pm, Seattle retailer Definitive Audio (6206 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115) is presenting their 12th annual Music Matters event. Making their public debut Thursday will be Classé's Delta Pre and Delta Stereo and Bowers & Wilkins DB series subwoofers; making their debuts at Definitive will the Audio Research Foundation Series, the dCS Vivaldi reference digital audio playback system: DAC, Upsampler, Master Clock and Transport, the European Audio Team B-Sharp Turntable, Focal's Sopra 3 loudspeaker, which is featured on the cover of Stereophile's April issue, Naim's Uniti Series streaming music players—Atom, Nova and Core—and Transparent's Gen 5 power products.

Imagine that you own an audio store, and business is good. Sales are up, and you'd like to take on additional lines. It's a good position to be in, but it has its challenges. You need more space, for sure. But what if the only suitable space that's available is some distance from the original store. Will customers follow you to the new location? Adrian Low, owner of Audio Excellence, has had to face this challenge three times.

Thursday, February 23, 4:30–8:30pm, F1 Audio (311 E Dundee Road, Palatine IL 60074) will be hosting an event featuring the new Dynaudio Contour 60 loudspeakers (above), Nordost cables, Octave tube electronics, and music from MoFi. Factory representatives will be on hand performing demonstrations and answering questions.

On February 16, Universal Music Group and MQA announced a multi-year agreement that will encode UMG's huge catalog of master recordings in MQA. In the language of the press release, the agreement promises "to make some of the world's most celebrated recordings available for the first time in Hi-Res Audio streaming." UMG's labels include ECM, Interscope, Geffen, A&M, Capitol, Island, Def Jam, Decca, Verve, Blue Note, Virgin, and EMI.