News

In an announcement made yesterday on their corporate website, UK-based Chester Group—which, in recent years, has sponsored consumer-audio shows in Vancouver, Brooklyn, and Brighton, UK, among other locales—revealed that they are "deferring" this year's Salon Son et Image, which had been scheduled to take place March 18 through 20 at the Bonaventure Hotel in Montreal.

Was a sunny day. Not a cloud was in the sky. (With thanks to Paul Simon.) A good day for a drive. But where? "Is there some audio store you haven't been to for some time that you'd like to visit?" (My wife is well-acquainted with my interests.)

But of course! Aardvark Boutique Audio, in Orangeville, Ontario.

How do you know that the vinyl revival is universal? When Port Townsend, WA, a little arts community with under 9500 inhabitants that is situated NW of Seattle, on the Quimper Peninsula at the gateway to the larger, breathtakingly beautiful Olympic Peninsula, is having a record show of its own—The Port Townsend Record Show is taking place Saturday, March 5, 11:00am–5:00pm in the American Legion Hall at 209 Monroe Street facing Port Townsend Bay.

This Thursday evening, March 3, Definitive Audio (6206 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle) celebrates its 40th anniversary with a four-hour Music Matters extravaganza filled with top-level product debuts and celebrity designers. The 5pm–9pm event, complete with rotating 20-minute presentations and lots of food and refreshments, promises the world debuts of the Bowers & Wilkins 800 D3 loudspeaker, the Wilson Audio Alexx loudspeaker, and the Dan D'Agostino Progression Series electronics.

GoldenEar's president and chief designer, Sandy Gross (above) will be appearing at Electronics Expo (491 US 46 West, Wayne, New Jersey) on Saturday February 27, from 1pm–5pm. Sandy will be demonstrating new GoldenEar products, including the Triton Two+ and Triton Three+ tower speakers and the SuperSub XXL, as well as GoldenEar's flagship Triton One.

The musical and technical excellence of the 2016 Grammy Award winners makes this a great year for audiophiles. Not only are 28 of the albums / compositions that won awards in multiple categories available for download from HDTracks, virtually all in hi-rez (from 44.1/24 to 192/24), but just as many if not more are available for streaming and download in hi-rez and/or full CD quality from both ClassicsOnlineHD and Tidal.

Metronome’s CD8 S, which adds digital inputs to the French company’s well-regarded CD player, graces our March issue’s cover. As is often the case these days, we loved the sound but hated the measured performance—madness indeed! Melco’s affordable server and Merging’s expensive network-connected NADAC multichannel D/A processor get our nod of approval, as do class-D amplifiers from Theta, NAD, and Spec, while Herb Reichert finds much to enjoy with Simaudio’s Moon Neo 340i integrated amp. And on the music side of things, Robert Baird praises Acoustic Sounds’ new stereo releases of classic Beach Boys albums and John Atkinson reacts to a recent report that classical music recordings will soon disappear. That would be madness!