"You should come to CAF," Ken Micallef said. He has been saying this for what seems like decades. "It's cool, smaller and more manageable than AXPONA. You'll like it."

Sometimes speakers talk to me. Usually when they do, they ask me to move them, or to move myself—the listening position—to suit them.

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
Marie-Nicole Lemieux, contralto; Andrew Staples, tenor. Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth, cond.
Harmonia Mundi HMM 902740 (CD; reviewed as 24/96). 2026. Jiri Heger, prod., eng.
Performance *****

Erin Morley & Lawrence Brownlee: Golden Age; Elena Firsova & Dmitri Smirnov: Love And Loss; Ben-Haim: Symphony No.2, Israel Philharmonic/Lahav Shani; Mahler: Symphony No.7, National Symphony Orchestra/Gianandrea Noseda.

Roy Brooks: The Free Slave; Amanda Monaco: Deathblow; Timo Vollbrecht: Bremen New York; Sun Ra And His Intergalactic Myth Science Solar Arkestra: Sleeping Beauty & On Jupiter.

Richard Ashcroft: Lovin' You; Chris Stamey: Anything Is Possible; Pigeons Playing Ping Pong: Feed the Fire; Joseph Kamaru: Heavy Combination 1966–2007.

For a lot of bands, the second album is intimidating. There are numerous examples of sophomore slumps, which sometimes lead to a band's quick end. Talking Heads didn't just avoid a sophomore slump; they scored their first top-40 hit and put their career on solid, sky-is-the-limit footing.

After I reviewed NAD's Masters Series M10 streaming integrated amplifier in January 2020, I bought the review sample to use as my daily driver . . . In 2022, NAD replaced it with a revised version, the M10 V2 . . . I never tried the V2, but when NAD introduced the M10 V3 ($2999) in late 2024, I felt a follow-up review was appropriate.