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Looking back at the 2010 CEDIA Exposition, I was struck by a couple of new products which, I hope, presage a rethinking of modern electronics design. Today, the streaming of program content can be accomplished by TVs, by Blu-ray players, by dedicated servers and, for all I know, someone will put that capability into a speaker system. The result is that, unless one chooses very carefully, one will be buying the same technology redundantly. By contrast, high-end companies have striven to separate their dedicated analog/stereo products from their digital/multichannel products, forcing the very picky among us into a kludgy home-theater-bypass. Again, we end up buying more boxes and interconnections than should be necessary.

This year's three-day Capital Audio Fest (CAF) opens on August 28 in Rockville, MD, relatively close to the nation's capitol. In a new, unquestionably friendlier and eminently accessible location, the Hilton Rockville, the show promises, at press time, up to 39 active exhibit rooms, probably more than the 118 "officially listed" brands and exhibitors, and a potential 300+ products.

With 147 exhibitor rooms, 60 active CanJam exhibitor booths, 40 lobby exhibitor spaces, and 380 exhibitor companies from 23 countries, Denver's annual Rocky Mountain Audio Fest ranks as the second-largest consumer audio show in North America. The three-day show opens to the public on Friday, October 2 at noon in its familiar Denver Marriott Tech Center location.

As you can see from the logo above, Stereophile has accepted an invitation to be inducted into the European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA), as the exclusive US member of the EISA's Hi-Fi Expert Group. EISA's invitation came too late for Stereophile to take part in the 2017 awards, but we will be a full participant in 2018. Meanwhile, here are the 2017–2018 winners.

One of the most important international competitions for young (ages 16–29) violinists takes place in the United States every four years. (The other top-tier classical-music competitions that include violinists, Moscow's International Tchaikovsky and Belgium's Queen Elizabeth, also run on four-year cycles.) While one might expect the US entry on that list to be hosted in California or New York, the venue is: Indianapolis, of 500-mile auto-race fame&#151land for excellent reasons.

Join Stereophile in Tampa as Mark Henninger, Ken Micallef, and Julie Mullins scope the warm weather and cool gear at this year's Florida International Audio Expo. Our coverage commences on Friday, so if you can't be there in person you can follow the action here.

Saturday, May 21, 9:30am–4pm: The 24th Annual Midwest Classical Record Show will be held at the North Shore Holiday Inn (5300 W. Touhy Avenue, Skokie, IL). Dealers from across the country will be on hand with their collections of classical LPs and CDs. Admission is $2 and parking is free.