Audio Advisors, West Palm Beach, Florida presents the new Wilson Audio Chronosonic XVX loudspeaker Friday February 28th, 3PM-7PM with Wilson's Peter McGrath. Space is limited so please R.S.V.P. to rkothe@atapb.com, or phone 561-478-3100, Attn: Rudi. That is all.

This year’s Florida Audio Expo (Feb. 7th, 8th and 9th) was three times larger than last year’s show. The second edition of the latest regional American audio show covered 11 floors of the Embassy Suites by Hilton Airport Westshore Hotel.

From the folks who gave us the Stable 33.33 transit platter—a device you might only realize you need after getting one—comes the Vinyl Center Hole Reamer. If you've ever had a too small record center hole—and who hasn't— but were afraid to ream it out with a round file fearing an uneven ream resulting in too big a hole, this device is the solution.

SAN FRANCISCO (2/12/19) -- Parasound will kick off a dealer tour for the new John Curl-designed Halo JC 1+ monoblock power amplifier on February 29th at The Audio Salon of Santa Monica, CA. This will be the first of a number of dealer events nationwide to debut this remarkable new Parasound flagship amplifier. It replaces Parasound's original JC 1 after a 'mere' two decades as king of the hill.

The Big Analog Dog is coming to town!

And by that we don’t mean Garth Leerer or Ken Bowers from Musical Surroundings, importers of AMG turntables and Hana cartridges, two of our very favorite product lines in all the world of audio. Although they WILL be here.

On Thursday morning (February 6), the Banning, CA building housing Apollo/Transco Masters’ factory and storage space burned. By far the biggest of the world’s two lacquer master disc manufacturers, most of the world’s vinyl mastering facilities (especially smaller ones) relied upon Apollo/Transco blanks, as well as their cutting styli for Westrex cutting heads. Ruled a total loss, 82 firefighters battled the blaze’s toxic fumes; thankfully, there were no injuries (Banning is located in the Southern California desert, approximately 2.5 hours away from Los Angeles).

Sadly this is not April 1st, and this is not a joke. The Banning CA facility housing Apollo/Transco lacquer manufacturing burned today and is apparently a total loss. More than 80 firefighters fought the dangerous chemical-laden fire. I haven't had a chance to get into the story details but hopefully no one was seriously injured in the blaze.

The Electric Recording Company just announced a limited to 300 copies edition of Sonny Rollins Way Out West (ERC 053M).

While there's some debate about how many hours a phonograph cartridge stylus lasts and how often it should be replaced, one thing's for sure: not keeping track of your cartridge's "mileage" makes difficult knowing when the time's come for a re-tip or replacement.