The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the producer of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), has finally confirmed the rumors that have been circulating for many weeks: The industry sector that CEA terms "high-performance audio" will move from its customary venue at the Alexis Villas (originally the Alexis Park) to the Venetian Hotel in 2007. In addition, "high-performance audio" and "high-performance home theater" will now be represented under the same umbrella.

As usual with shows of this type, many of the systems demoed at FSI cost tens of thousands of dollars. However, Angie Lisi of Audiopathic, distributor of some stratospherically-priced equipment, made it a point to assemble a relatively affordable yet highly musical-sounding system, consisting of the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/integratedamps/1299manley">Manley Stingray</A> integrated amp ($2250), <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/1104totem">Totem Rainmaker</A> speakers ($1198/pair), and an Accuphase CD player. Oh, did you want to know the price of the CD player? Umm&mdash;$6995. When I pointed out to Angie the incongruousness of having this expensive CD player as part of the system, she replied&mdash;somewhat sheepishly, I thought&mdash;"It was the cheapest CD player I had around."

Dan Wright of ModWright started out modifying CD/SACD players and D/A converters (I still use the ModWright version of the Perpetual Technologies D/A converter), and his success in this area has encouraged him to come out with products of his own. New at the show was the SWLP 9.0SE prototype phono+line stage preamp (about US$4000).

Bruce Edgar has been refining his Edgarhorn loudspeakers, available in kit form, for a good number of years now, and I've noticed a steady improvement in the sounds he's been getting at shows. The ones I heard at the Montreal Show were the best-sounding yet.

Bang & Olufsen, a company that usually gives audio/home entertainment shows a wide berth, had an extensive display, featuring their futuristic-looking omnidirectional speakers. I enjoyed the sound&mdash;maybe because they were playing Frank Sinatra.

The big news at this years Festival Son & Image (FSI, aka "The Montreal Show")
was the change in venue. After many years at the Delta Hotel in downtown Montreal, the Show moved this year to another downtown hotel, the Sheraton Montreal.

The doctor never called back. Maybe tomorrow. Nevertheless, I do feel a bit better. My head still hurts and my throat is still sore, but I've got more energy than I had all week. I picked up the tissues, came to terms with the tea, washed the dishes, and found the energy to set the Moscode aside for now and reinstate the Musical Fidelity A3.5 integrated.

A new Massive Attack album and <I>The Belfast Telegraph</I> breaks the story. "We don't like each other very much. It's always been quite tempestuous for us in the studio&mdash;we always seem to lose a member after every album," says Grant Marshall.

New study: <I>High Times</I> is not a gateway publication to hard reading.

Bagheera simply dribbles off the bookshelf for hours at a time&mdash;after she rids it of those troublesome books, of course.