Michael Fremer

This year it took the full four days of High End Munich to cover all of the new analog gear. Even then some might have been missed. Clearly the move is to vinyl and streaming audio. Turntables were playing throughout the show's demo rooms and more were on display in the ground floor halls. Digital die-hards couldn't escape the sound and so were confronted by the reality that today's vinyl playback sounds amazing.

In previous years, day four was either a leisurely walk-through in case something analog was missed—important or otherwise, or it was time to leave early and go home. Not this year.

Marshall Blonstein, owner/founder of both the DCC Compact Classics and Audio Fidelity labels and a record industry veteran revealed in a recent email that he was retiring and closing down the Audio Fidelity label (the photo L-R is of Blonstein, AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer and legendary mastering engineer Kevin Gray taken during the TRON double LP mastering sessions).

Sign of the times: My local Compact Disc World store in Paramus, New Jersey, now has a vinyl section—a good one. The LPs are selling well enough that some folks I know shop there often so they don't miss out. Even Burger King is in on the action. If the artwork on its new soft-drink cup is any indication, the fast-food franchise has transferred its familiar "Have it your way" slogan from hamburgers to music carriers...