While most of the luxury speaker brands don't participate in CAF, Stenheim and especially YG Acoustics made points of being seen and heard this year. YG especially made a play for the ears and hearts—not to mention the wallets—of Capital Audio Festival attendees by demoing a wide range of its speakers from the lower priced to the next to the top XX model. Despite the small rooms in which they showed, the sound was exceptional in every room, but for my ears, it... Read More

Part 1 of Tracking Angle's Capital Audio Festival 2024 coverage is an hour plus long video mostly highlighting turntables and tonearms but also a few other interesting features including an interview with composer/musician/HD Tracks entrepreneur David Chesky's 17 year old son Lucca who introduced a new $995/pr loudspeaker. You're sure to enjoy the interview I conducted with him.The top photo show a The Wand turntable fitted with a newly designed arm... Read More

While driving home from the Capital Audio Festival this past Monday, as I crossed the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge that spans the Susquehanna River between Havre de Grace and Perryville, Maryland I realized I'd left something behind at the Hilton Hotel, Rockville Maryland that I'd not be able to turn around and retrieve, and that is coverage of Doug White's room containing a significant trove of analog gear I'd planned for weeks to be sure to... Read More

Day three began with a return visit to the PGE Narodowy stadium to visit a few big rooms I was unable to access day one, including the big Avant-Garde G3 speakers driven by Kondo electronics sourced with Kondo's turntable and phono preamp and a Studer A80 tape deck.In another big room Magico demoed for the first time ever at a show the big M7s driven by Pilium Cronus mono blocks and sourced via an MSB DAC. I hit the room twice and both times the music being... Read More

I spent day two at the Radisson Blu Sobieski hotel where most of the Polish manufacturers displayed and demonstrated their products. Others were there too of course, including some of the bigger players who took the larger first floor rooms. Aavik, part of Audio Group Denmark, debuted a major $60,000 phono preamp at the show that Michael Børresen demoed and explained in a detailed interview (photo at the top). That starts the video. It has multiple inputs including... Read More

This year's Warsaw Audio Video Show was well attended as always and because the biggest crowds show up on Saturday I spent almost all day Friday covering the stadium exhibits, which are mostly, but not all, the larger corporate participants like Technics, Pro-Ject, JBL, Marantz, Denon, McIntosh, Senheiser, Focal, Yamaha, etc. plus many smaller "high end" brands like Hegel, Pro-Ject, Transrotor, Dali, Unison Research, Clearaudio and many others... Read More

Last weekend's Warsaw Audio Video Show was a great success: well-attended by the industry and consumers alike. There was a lot to see, hear, and if you were there to shop for records, so much to buy at very reasonable prices. Big international brands displayed at the sports stadium, smaller Polish and other nationality brands unfamiliar to American audiophiles showed at the Radisson Sobieski Blue Hotel, while a few of the larger, more established brands were... Read More

Our man in Japan, whose website is Rice Field Records took in the recent Tokyo Audio Fair and produced this video report. The show always has a great vibe. Attendees are respectful and most often want to hear classical music and good jazz. The presentations are useful too. Enjoy! Read More

Our man in Tokyo Michael Schoolnik went to the recent Tokyo International Audio Show and shot some footage you'll enjoy watching. And here are some timings.0:00 Intro0:25 Accuphase2:05 Ortofon3:24 Luxman5:12 Sforzato6:43 Triode9:08 Esoteric10:20 McIntosh Read More

Last winter I was asked by the High End Society, organizers of the High End Munich show to assemble and moderate a panel discussion revolving around vinyl playback. We agreed on the topic "Has Vinyl Playback Technology Gone As Far As It Can Possibly Go?" and I got to choose the participants, all of whom agreed to take part. In the photo above, (L-R): Ortofon's Chief Officer of Acoustics and Technology, Leif Johanssen, WAM Engineering / WallyTools... Read More

By Sunday most everyone is beat to a pulp and ready for the show to be over but go on it must! For those covering it there's never enough time. As I began assembling day four's videos I realized I'd missed some key ones that should have been posted on days one, two and three, so in addition to what I managed to get on day four, you'll find some earlier coverage. This one begins on the show floor with Audio Research's Dave Gordon who runs us... Read More

Day Three included two breaks in the normal convention coverage flow: first in the A.M. I moderated a seminar titled "Has Vinyl Playback Technology Gone About As Far As It Can Go?" with participants Mark Dohmann (Dohmann Audio), Craig Milnes (Wilson-Benesch), Leif Johannsen (Ortofon) and J.R. Boisclair (WallyTools/WAM Engineering). All over the past decade have advance the art and science of vinyl playback, so their take on the question was interesting and... Read More

Day two's coverage begins and ends with visits to the main floor mayhem where you can find newly minted dreamers as well as veterans who do well selling accessories, records, inner and outer sleeves, etc.I stopped by Rega, Thorens, where the finished edition of its big turntable was on both static and active display, Acoustic Signature, which showed a new Tango Apex NEO phono preamp and a new €50,000 TA 10000 NEO tonearm. The 50K tonearm price point has become a... Read More

New product debuts abounded at High End Munich. I was trying to cover products in the analog domain—turntables, cartridges and phono preamps—and found many each day, but while I was at it I came upon many other new and exciting products you'll see in this day one coverage. All prices are approximate. The day started with a curious coupling of Technics and Lamborghini. It seemed that Lamborghini wants some vinyl playback caché and Technics wants some luxury to rub... Read More

"Vertere's new high-end tonearm is designated the SG-II PTA, as it looks—at a brief glance—similar to the SG-1 PTA tonearms. However, looks can be deceiving, as the SG-II only shares three parts with its junior siblings: the fine tracking force weight, the lift lower mechanism, and the silicon nitride triple bearing assembly. The SG-II-PTA HB will sell for £13500, €16998, and $16995. It will be available from July.