To be considered for our 2025 awards, only products subjected to a full review or considered in a column published from the November 2024 issue through the October 2025 issue would qualify. Each product was subjected by the reviewer to a thorough evaluation over a period of weeks or months—plus, for regular reviews (not columns), a session in my test lab.

This month, I am writing about what could be the ultimate analog topic circa 2025: A prominent vinyl-only record club is going totally offline. Is it a marketing gimmick? Sure it is, but read on.

Harry and Mat Weisfeld were up to their old tricks at CAF, wowing the audience with a reference rig containing a pair of vintage JBL Everest loudspeakers in the Jefferson suite and dropping a lower-cost system in the Adams room.

I strolled into this room not knowing what to expect but seriously intrigued by the pair of large, folded-horn speakers that looked like something from a Grimm's fairy tale.

Jeff Coates of Harmonia Distribution presented several systems in its two-room suite in Rockville.

The preshow buzz was palpable. Is Altec Lansing really back? With a new planar loudspeaker?

Mark Sossa of Well Pleased AV always puts together solid, good-sounding rooms, often featuring Merason DACs and Qln loudspeakers. At this show Sossa's system, fortified by Alma Music & Audio, reached new levels of transparency, quiet, and soundstaging, wowing and entrancing me.

Tom Vu brought a complete Triangle Art system to CAF, with his trademark gold-encrusted turntables at the center of the room—not one, not two, but three! Vu sold the most expensive turntable while I was away fetching coffee.