News

The hi-fi world has lost a giant, and we at Stereophile have lost a brother.

Art Dudley passed peacefully this morning around 4am after a short illness. The cause was metastatic cancer.

Social distancing. Flattening the curve. These expressions are embedded in our collective psyche as we to try to keep COVID-19 and the novel coronavirus that causes it at bay. Few of us who live through this will ever forget them.

But life and work must somehow go on, if at a slower pace than before.

You probably heard the news: record claims for unemployment benefits, indeed, five times the previous record from 1982. Our economy has never been shut down quite so completely and suddenly. Those most affected are service workers: cooks, waiters, retail clerks—and the people who make the music we love.

With the COVID-19–related cancelation of Munich High End and the postponement or cancelation of other national and regional audio shows, smaller, local events such as Seattle’s 15-year old Music Matters event, which returned to Definitive Audio Seattle on March 5–6, have gained importance—at least as long as they are able to avoid being shut down.

In a press release issued just a few minutes ago, the organizers of the Montreal Audiofest announced plans to reschedule their postponed show for 15–17 May, the original dates of the now-canceled High End Munich show.

Monday, March 9, 2020 AXPONA, the largest audio expo in the Western hemisphere, has moved its dates at Chicago’s Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center to August 7–9.

Thursday March 19th, 5–8pm: Shelley's Stereo, 22102 Clarendon St. in Woodland Hills, CA, will host representatives from Yamaha for a Yamaha 5000-series listening party.