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Last year, in May, the remarkable (truly without equal) Herbie Hancock gave the commencement address at Soka University, where I teach humanities and literature, as well as coordinating the "Jazz Monsters" concert series which I founded in 2005 after decades of teaching at Cornell, Brown, Stanford, Brandeis, and UCLA. Herbie's eloquent message to our graduating... Read More »

The Capital Audiofest is one of the few true high-end audio shows left in the world, and as the industry shrinks all of these shows become more and more important. Long-time readers will recall that I have very mixed feelings about the current state of the high end audio industry, and because of that I... Read More »

Nick Cave. The man. The legend. To those who know him, he needs little introduction. He has been steadily churning out his own brand of beautifully macabre music since the '70s—from The Boys Next Door's beginnings in Australia, to the dark art punk outfit The Birthday Party that took up residence in Berlin, to the... Read More »

Bill Leebens. Jim Aud. EveAnna Manley. Knut Skogrand. Din Johnson of Ristretto Roasters. Andy Regan of Jerry Harvey Audio. Johan Coorg of KEF ESS Labs with Dared. More vinyl and audio accessories/bits and pieces over at the Atrium. Dan Muzquiz of Blackbird Audio. WyWires. More headphones and headphone amplifiers and more at the Atrium (courtesy... Read More »

One of the Audio Skies's rooms featuring Larsen speakers, Pear Audio Analogue, and Gamut.  Walker Aduio showing Slient Source Cables, Raidho Acoustics, and the littler Pass Labs amplifiers. The other Audio Skies' room with Gamut, and Pear Audio Analogue. Liked this room a lot. Quintessence Acoustics showing PBN Audio, Maker Audio, and Snake River Audio... Read More »

I realize that for many years I've opened my various show reports with a little rant of sorts, carrying on about things that bother me about the high end audio industry, or about trade shows like CES. I was thinking about what to open with this time, when a brief conservation with an industry friend... Read More »

GIK Acoustics showed with Odyssey Audio. Devialet showed with Focal courtesy of Audio Plus Services. Sonic Studio demonstrating with Marten Logan and Peachtree. Brooks Berdan room showing Chord Electronics, Magico, VPI, and Light Harmonic Cables. Gingko Audio showed with DanaCable, Wells Audio, and LampizatOr.  Another Brooks Berdan room, but this time showing Auralic, Spendor, Cardas,... Read More »

What a great time was experienced by anyone attending this year's event. Healthy attendance, crowded rooms, wonderful discussions (many heartfelt thanks to those who asked about Carol—is nice to see such love for her and for myself after such a year). And hats off to Richard Beers and his organization for putting such a stellar... Read More »

Turning; turning back.  2014.  Another year, another THE Show Newport Beach in the books. This has become a favorite audio event on my calendar; the combination of southern California weather at the end of May, a great venue, a solid organization, and a great turnout from audio and music distributors from all over. Richard Beers... Read More »