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Warsaw Audio Show 2024
Peak Consult of Denmark Premiers with Extraudio of The Netherlands
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Nov 25, 2024
Although I did happen upon Peak Consult speakers in Munich and Southern California in 2023, we last reviewed a Peak Consult speaker almost 18 years ago. Hence my excitement when I encountered genuine full-range sound (albeit too loud) in the room that paired a new reworking of the company's El Diablo loudspeakers ($79,000/pair) with Extraudio electronics.
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Capital AudioFest 2024
Robyatt Audio: Quad, VPI, Thai-Scandinavian Engineering, Tzar, April Sound, Java HiFi, Sonore, and Finley Audio
Ken Micallef  |  Nov 25, 2024
Robin Wyatt always gives great room, and this year’s CAF appearance was no exception. Prancing like a jolly bartender offering beautiful audio reproduction in place of libations, Wyatt’s room creates anticipation and soon enough, audio ecstasy.
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Capital AudioFest 2024
Border Patrol, Living Voice, Triode Wire Labs
Ken Micallef  |  Nov 25, 2024
Gary Dewes and Pete Grzybowski, the minds behind Border Patrol Audio and Triode Wire Labs, respectively, conjured a sonic space that wasn't merely heard, but felt. A room where sound didn't just exist, but seized the listener, demanding attention.
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Capital AudioFest 2024
Semrad Audio, EM/IA with Garrard, Sorane, Mutech
Ken Micallef  |  Nov 25, 2024
Show attendees entered John Semrad and Dave Slagle’s room and let out an involuntary gasp. The components on display epitomized bespoke, handmade craftsmanship, of the highest quality, with purity and provenance their bywords.
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Capital AudioFest 2024
Popori Acoustics and UniQue Home Audio with Applied Physics, VAC, Roon, Rythmik, Snake River Audio, Solid Steel, ASC, ViaBlue
Ken Micallef  |  Nov 25, 2024
At the risk of giving these social media upstarts more attention, my old friend Jason Messina (aka The Audiophile Junky) could be found in the Popori/UniQue room, which is a funny thing. The only time I’ve seen Jason even close to being immobile—i.e., not making videos, which he does, hitting the ground running (I’ve seen it)—is at a show!
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Revinylization
Revinylization #60: The Butthole Surfers Wipe Out
Robert Baird  |  Nov 25, 2024
Music's lunatic fringe drifts further out every hour. As it should. In this century, with computers playing an ever-larger role, music continues to fragment and become infinitely more varied. This splintering is either the essence of what keeps it relevant as an art form or something profoundly disturbing, to be hated and feared.

In the mid-1980s, few bands were as loved, despised, and misunderstood as the Butthole Surfers. The impulse to tread in unexplored borderlands of noise, studio blathery, live excess, indulgent nonsensicalness, and the urge to reconnoiter unheard sonics were all taken to heart by a nutty duo of Texans whose dulcet appellation was originally one of their song titles.

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Capital AudioFest 2024
YG Acoustics, Bel Canto, Cardas Cables
Julie Mullins  |  Nov 22, 2024
YG Acoustics speakers have always had a distinct look, but the massive aluminum towers in room 806 were unmissable, even if you only glanced into the room. These were the Colorado-based manufacturer’s state-of-the-art Sonja 3.3 loudspeakers.
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Capital AudioFest 2024
American Sound of Canada
Ken Micallef  |  Nov 22, 2024
Angie Lisi of American Sound of Canada always presents desirable components—CAF2024 was no exception. This year, Lisi launched the North American debut of German-made Perpetuum Ebner turntables, the new Phasemation SA1500 integrated amp, new Avantgarde Colibri Series speakers and subwoofer, new Avantgarde Zero Itron speakers, and her exclusive line of Italian Synthesis Art in Music tube amplification.
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Capital AudioFest 2024
Infigo Audio, Alta Audio with VPI
Ken Micallef  |  Nov 22, 2024  |  First Published: Nov 21, 2024
This all-Infigo-meets-Alta room was bathed in Infigo Audio’s Hans Looman’s usual blue light glow, showering the room with the same mystical vibrations I heard from this room at some CAF long since past.
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Stand Loudspeaker Reviews
PS Audio Aspen FR5 loudspeaker
Kalman Rubinson  |  Nov 21, 2024
I remember the first PS Audio product: a simple phono stage. It was so simple—a passive RIAA EQ filter flanked by a pair of primitive op-amps—that when the schematic was made public, I built one myself; I was in the midst of my DIY years. I thought it was, to use a word from that time, nifty. Paul McGowan went on to other things and other companies, eventually reviving PS Audio and building it into its present form with a wide range of interesting and substantive products. Most recently, PS Audio added a line of loudspeakers inspired by Paul's erstwhile partner in other ventures, the late Arnie Nudell.

The PS Audio Aspen speaker line has four models, three 3-way floorstanders (FR30, FR20, FR10) and a single two-way standmount (the FR5, $3499/pair).

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