News

Friday, September 30, 4–8 pm and Saturday, October 1, 4–8 pm, Lavish HiFi (1044 4th Street, Santa Rosa CA 95404) are presenting special listening events featuring the premiere of GamuT's new flagship speaker, the Zodiac. Featured guests will be GamuT's chief designer, Benno Baun Meldgaard, and US president Michael Vamos.

Chalk it up to show karma, but I've now covered two consecutive shows where the accuracy of CH Precision's latest gear has lent itself perfectly to comparison demos. In this case, it was AudioQuest's now-completed Mythical Creatures line of "characteristic impedance" cabling, in combination with Stenheim Alumine 5SE loudspeakers.

Among the terrible news coming out of the Gulf states these past few days, we heard the sad news that Gary Warzin, one of the co-founders, with Tony Gregory, of high-end distribution company Audiophile Systems, had died on Saturday August 27 at just 56. Audiophile Systems had grown to prominence in the 1970s and '80s marketing Linn components in the US, and after Linn had set up their own distribution, had worked hard to establish the Arcam and dCS brands in the US. We reproduce below the email we received from Audiophile Systems, telling us of the news, but I'd like to offer my own memory of someone whose abilities as a serious expert on marketing—he was a Disney Fellow—were matched by his penchant for practical jokes:

We were startled to receive an email announcement recently informing us that Scot Markwell, long-time set-up and equipment maven for The Abso!ute Sound's erstwhile editor Harry Pearson, had joined the staff at www.themusic.comhttp://www.themusic.com">www.themusic.com; to manage its Gear Shop division.

On June 6, as we traveled back from HE">http://blog.stereophile.com/he2006/">HE 2006, we received near simultaneous press releases from Genesis Advanced Technologies and Arnie Nudell describing the same event.

It's been, as Bette Davis might say, a bumpy ride, but Genesis says it is back as a designer and manufacturer of high-end loudspeakers. Formed in 1991, Genesis was originally partnered by Canadian loudspeaker conglomerate Audio Products International (Mirage, Energy, Sound Dynamics), until famed designers Arnie Nudell and Paul McGowan bought API out in 1994.

The audio industry lost another of its veterans on May 23 with the passing of George Bischoff. Over more than four decades, George touched many facets of the industry beginning with Personalized Audio, his retail shop in Dunellen, NJ.