Crescendo Fine Audio (6760 West 38th Avenue, Wheat Ridge, CO 80033) will be hosting a digital music seminar 4:00–8:00pm on Saturday, March 14, featuring products by Dynaudio and Plinius Audio. Dynaudio representative Mick Tillman will be on hand to explain the digital technology implemented into the Dynaudio Focus XD (pictured above at the 2015 CES with Dynaudio founder Wilfried Ehrenholz) and Xeo loudspeaker ranges. These will be demonstrated with a variety of sources, showing off the speakers’ wireless and hard-wired functionality and capabilities.

Maybe it’s the sound. Or the way it looks slung around your neck. Or its mystical appeal to females, but the appeal of the electric guitar has been there literally from its invention in the early 1930s.

Before I moved to the boat, I lived in a big old firehouse with a shiny brass pole and a red door. The fire engines were gone but it was still a boy-toy pilgrimage site. The first thing one noticed on entering was a red 356 Porsche coupe. Behind it was a black '32 Ford hot rod with a flat-head V8 and triple Strombergs. Behind that was a 1939 Lincoln convertible from some Godfather movie. On the second floor . . .

It seems that the rising popularity of downloading of music files is going to affect not only the distribution of high-resolution recordings but also the availability of multichannel recordings. Once freed from the technical, marketing, and distribution constraints of physical media, large hi-rez and/or multichannel files can more easily be made available. The established providers of music downloads, such as Acoustic Sounds, HDtracks, and iTrax in the US, are being joined by: sites that specialize in particular genres of music, such as the Classical Shop (UK); other sites, that focus on particular formats, such as Native DSD Music (Netherlands) and the Promates Music Store (DXD files, Denmark); and music producers, such as Blue Coast Music and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO.org), that offer their work directly to listeners.

Audio retailer Pro Musica, located at 713 W. Wrightwood, Chicago IL, 60614, will be showcasing the Naim Statement Amplification System with the Dynaudio Evidence Platinum loudspeakers this weekend (Friday, March 13, 12pm–7pm & Saturday, March 14, 10am–6pm). Personnel from both Naim and Dynaudio will be present. For more information, please contact Pro Musica at (773) 883-9500.

Editor's Note: We are republishing this report from the 1980 CES both because many of the themes strike resonances 35 years later, and because it emphasizes the hard time high-end audio was having at the end of the 1970s. The LP had been eclipsed by the cassette and 8-track cartridge as the primary massmarket media for recorded music and the decade-long hi-fi boom that had been fueled by the entry of Japanese brands was running out of steam. Ironically, it was the launch of Compact Disc three years later that was to reinvigorate the audio business.—John Atkinson

The 1980 Winter CES, held in Las Vegas in January 1980, came on the heels of the worst business year the audio field has seen in almost a decade. So-called high-end audio, in particular, had distressing sales declines during the last year of the 1970s, with some dealers (who had not yet gone out of business) predicting that their books for 1979 would probably show as much as a 30% loss in sales from the previous year. Dealer turnout in the Las Vegas Jockey Club, where most of the high-end manufacturers were showing their wares, was nonetheless surprisingly good, although makers of the highest-priced exotica were not as ecstatic about the turnout as were those exhibiting more-affordable gear. One high-end entrepreneur was heard to say (to one of his associates), "It doesn't look any better for this year than last."