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The people behind Toronto Audio Fest (TAF) are Sarah Tremblay, Michel Plante and Ben Scarcelli. Sarah and Michel are the ones that organizes the Montreal Audio Fest and Ben partnered with them for TAF bringing his valuable knowledge of the Ontario Market. The TAF venue was The Westin Toronto Airport Hotel, which is conveniently located... Read More »

Continuing on with our coverage... In this report, all photos by Dave Clark, words by Carol Clark, except those in parentheses, which are by Dave Clark who will do his best to be nice. Pangea Audio Octet. Pangea Audio won a PF Writer's Choice Award in 2017 for their Vulcan rack. They also showed speaker... Read More »

Continuing on with our coverage... In this report, all photos by Dave Clark, words by Carol Clark, except those in parentheses, which are by Dave Clark who will do his best to be nice. Wavelength Audio, Vaughn Loudspeakers. Vaughn, plasma tweeter loudspeakers. Also in the Wavelength Audio and Vaughn room. On Saturday, Dave moderated a... Read More »

Continuing on with our coverage... In this report, all photos by Dave Clark, words by Carol Clark, except those in parentheses, which are by Dave Clark who will do his best to be nice. Auralic with YG Acoustic loudspeakers. (Loved the sound here.) Auralic Leo GX. Auralic Aries G2. Ryan Speakers with Cardas Audio and... Read More »

Continuing on with our coverage... In this report, all photos by Dave Clark, words by Carol Clark, except those in parentheses, which are by Dave Clark who will do his best to be nice. Nordost, CH Precision, YG Acoustics, VPI Industries, and dCS. Philip O'Hanlon with On a Higher Note once again had a fabulous sounding... Read More »

The Rocky Mountain Audio Fest celebrated its fifteenth year this October in Denver! At the press and exhibitor mixer on Thursday night, Marjorie Baumert announced that next year the show is moving. The new location, The Gaylord Rockies, is closer to the airport and features 1500 rooms, eight restaurants, and many other amenities. For 2019,... Read More »

Lone Star Audio Fest the high-end audio show held annually for 14 years the first weekend of May in Dallas, Texas was a grand success this year. The ever-present enthusiasm of exhibitors and attendees was enhanced by the upturn in the economy. Veteran exhibitors further dialed in their demo systems and were joined by a... Read More »

The California Audio Show 2018. This year was the eighth annual installment of this show. Dave and I attended the first two, 2010 in Emeryville, and 2011 in Burlingame. The venue this year was the Oakland Airport Hilton. Sponsored by Constantine Soo of Dagogo, this show was small and easy to navigate. There are fairly... Read More »

Come a little closer. I want to tell you a secret. Are you ready? I don't go to stereo shows to listen to stereos. It's true! Maybe once, in the dim mists of my retreating youth, I went to these things hoping to listen to stereos. Now, though? I don't want to listen to stereos.... Read More »

I have a lot of affection for the California Audio Show. It's an easy drive down from the Oregon Coast, and some of my most enjoyable show experiences have been here—the smaller size makes it easier to see everything and experience it in-depth, and make connections with the folks from the industry who've become friends.... Read More »

Munich 2018, or "What the hell was that?!" Fair warning:  This is not going to be a standard show report, whatever that is. There are plenty of audio scribes, showgoers, bloggers, and videographers running around high-end audio shows these days. There are tons of articles, postings, discussions, YouTube videos, bloggo-blather, and camera dumps going on,... Read More »

You may have noticed a trend over the years in my response to high-end audio shows. I've gravitated more and more to photographs not of products, but of people. Less and less of audio porn; more and more of the folks who make up the slightly mad world of fine audio. There are plenty of... Read More »

T.H.E. Show… The Home Entertainment Show of 2018… back after being abandoned by the creation of the Los Angeles Audio Show (LAAS ) in 2017, which died a sudden and yet sort of expected death in 2018 after its first show near LAX in 2017, left many with a sour taste and not sure what... Read More »

In Part I of my AXPONA 2018 show report, I highlighted several "costs more than my first house" mega-systems, systems that only the up-and-coming hedge fund manager or successful neurosurgeon can afford. For those of us who have mortgages to pay, intend to finance our children's educations (in full or in part), still make car... Read More »

Top Five Show Sounds at AXPONA 2018 1. GTT Audio lineup YG Acoustics Sonja XV Jr. speakers Audionet Heisenberg amplifiers, Stern preamplifier, PAM 2 phonostage Kronos turntable Air Tight Opus 1 cartridge Kubala-Sosna cabling 2. Quintessence Audio lineup Wilson Audio Alexia 2 Speakers Audio Research Reference M160 amplifiers and Reference 6 linestage AMG Viella 12... Read More »

By Sunday all that was to give it the olde college try and go for broke. Sunday's game plan was to start as early as possible—beginning with a 7:30 AM breakfast with buddy Andre Jennings from The Absolute Sound—and visit as many of the rooms that had missed. There's no question that covering audio shows... Read More »

Bigger than a basketball court but slightly smaller than a football field. Roughly one-half of the exhibit hall was designated the "Record Fair," while the other half of the Marketplace was the Ear Gear Expo. Inside this massive room sat 80 tables/booths filled to the brim with audiophile goodies ranging from software to cables to... Read More »

By now the reality of covering 162 rooms (with 60 new exhibitors) and 80 booths was over. Any hope of seeing the whole show—other than sprinting from room to room and taking pictures—was also dashed and it was time to implement Plan B. So plan B—namely cover what I could—was put into motion. Of course,... Read More »

For 2018, AXPONA moved to a bigger, shinier, swankier venue, showed up with real attitude and renewed swagger, and hosted noticeably bigger crowds. The Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center, a ginormous, and ginormously over-the-top Bauhaus-influenced conference center, blessed with the amenities and exhibition capacity to handle a show the size of AXPONA, replaces the... Read More »