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Steve Jain's Fidelity Imports held fort in six rooms at FLAX, crisscrossing lines that included Perlisten, Primare, Michell, Unison Research, Diptyque, Opera, Soulnote, Gold Note, Q Acoustics, and more. Room 1016 was co-hosted by Chestertown, Maryland, dealership The Listening Room.

The fine sounds that emanated from this room originated with an Innuous Statement Server-Streamer ($25,000), which sent its data by USB to an Audia Flight FLS1 Preamplifier equipped with the optional DAC board ($7499). Amplification was courtesy of a FLS4 Stereo Amplifier ($9999), and transducing…

Angie Lisi and Matthew Legere of American Sound of Richmond Hill, Ontario, played vinyl records, after my heart.

Tracking an Analog Relax EX300 cartridge mounted to a Glanz tonearm on an Oracle Delphi V11 turntable, those records, some rare, included Chick Corea's Circling In, Art Pepper's Among Friends (!!), Illinois Jacquet's Birthday Party, and Highlights from Rheingold and Die Walkure, my favorite Wagner opera, with Solti/Vienna on Decca.

Rounding out this homey, high-performance rig were a Phasemation EA-550 phono stage ($38,000, when bought with the Analog Relax…

As Stereophile managing editor Mark Henninger and I scurried up and down the Hilton halls, fulfilling our tasks as intrepid reporters, we had little time to compare notes. But we agreed on one room, Axiss Audio. In a room filled with exceptional gear, Axiss's Cliff Duffey and TJ Goldsby had set up a fantastic rig, well beyond the norm, which overachieved and set my ears afire. (Not literally.)

Duffey and Goldsby brought a Reed 3C Turntable ($27,975) equipped with a Reed 5A Tangential Linear Tracking Tonearm ($10,595), a Reed 2B Pivoted Tonearm ($4,995), and an AIR-TIGHT Opus One…

When some folks think of Audio Note, they picture of low fog over English lakes, Earl Grey tea, The House of Commons, and Big Ben. Tubes for sure. Likely, Classical music. Well hold on to your remote control, 'cause this latest sighting of Audio Note, at the Florida Audio Expo, was more drum'n'bass than Dvořák, more techno wampum than Die Walkure.

Owner Peter Qvortrup talked as I considered his English copy of Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth. Audio Note Sales Executive Adrian Ford Crush and Federico Unda of Miami dealership Soundlux Audio worked the hi-fi. I made…

There's a fear out there, even among jazz cognoscenti, that the music's best years and true geniuses are all part of the past. Even in New York City, the richest magnet for live jazz on earth, it sometimes seems that experiencing generational talent, the kind that once drove the music forward, is now confined to gazing at the famous photos on the walls of the music's most revered shrine, the Village Vanguard. Yet, seeing pianist Sullivan Fortner at the Vanguard, as part of Cécile McLorin Salvant's band, convinced me that there's still jazz magic in the world. By…

That title must have gotten your attention. Not the part about Art Pepper but the part about the CD. Nobody has anything good to say about the compact disc anymore (footnote 1). CD sales suck. Streaming and downloads rule the world. Vinyl (an album format that warps, scratches, and has to be flipped every 22 minutes) now outsells CDs.

But the CD still deserves a place in your heart. One reason: box sets. Many of them are worthy of coveting. For example, there is an amazing new project on the Omnivore label, Art Pepper's The Complete Maiden Voyage…

In the usual preshow rush to coax product lists out of exhibitors, I asked Jeff for his list, and make it fast! One day passed, then another. Finally, Jeff acquiesced, writing "Ken, we just got the room!"

All good. I checked the list. Everything was there: source, amplification, cables—but ... "Jeff, you're a speaker manufacturer, and you’re running the room. Shouldn’t we include your speakers in the list?"

Once in Jeff’s room, time stopped and nobody left the cozy couch. Jeff played a 1/4", 15ips compilation tape (on a Studer A810 with low-inductance heads) containing…

Another heavy hitter, showing in five rooms with multiple product lines, was Rob Standley’s Playback Distribution, featuring equipment from TEAC, the new-to-me company Advance Paris, PMC, Amphion, Vienna Acoustics, and a heaping helping of Esoteric.

Playback’s room 1004 featured no fewer than five US debuts. The front end and amplification was all Esoteric: the K-1X SE SACD Player/DAC ($38,000), the N-01XD SE Network Player/DAC ($22,000), the Grandioso C1X preamplifier ($46,000), and the S-1X Class A stereo amplifier ($32,000). All new!

Loudspeakers were the new Vienna…

Phono playback EQ is one of those audiophile topics that stokes some people's passions, with plenty of disagreements about how important it is. I have seen grown men get into heated…

Typically, moving magnet inputs are comparatively simple, with fixed gain, a fixed 47k ohm load, and perhaps, on the fancier ones, a capacitive loading option. Japanese manufacturers have traditionally taken moving magnet cartridges more seriously, offering a wider range of moving magnet input options. For example, the Luxman EQ-500, reviewed by Art Dudley in 2016, has just two settings for the moving coil input but a host of adjustments for moving magnet cartridges. The Lupe follows this lead, with five moving magnet resistance loads, from 18k ohms to 120k ohms, eight capacitive loads,…