Coverage of Audio Video Show 2019 in Warsaw, Poland begins today on AnalogPlanet.com. But first, as long as we were in town, we decided to first visit wmfono, a small "boutique" vinyl pressing plant with 7 Lened and one Hamilton manual record presses.

Kanye West's devotion to Jesus is nothing new; it's a recurring subject throughout his discography. On his 2004 single “Jesus Walks,” he raps, “Now I ain’t here to argue ‘bout His facial features/Or here to convert atheists into believers.” In recent traveling-church-service performances with the Sunday Service choir, however, he changes the second aforementioned line to “we here to convert atheists into believers.”

You know what they say about audiophiles: only interested in what sounds good, music comes in distant second place or they repeatedly play the same few records, etc. You’ve heard the bad raps. Yet here’s a box set of vintage (read “old”) recordings digitized and processed that’s brought more inquiries into my inbox than many so-called “audiophile” recordings.

Thursday, November 14th 5-9PM Innovative Audio, NYC, 150 E. 58th St. hosts the east coast debut of the new Spectral Audio DMA-300SV Reference Stereo Amplifier presented by Spectral's legendary founder and president Richard Fryer

Audio Concepts,11661 Preston Rd, Dallas, TX, is excited to announce an evening of analog listening with partners AMG (Analog Manufaktur Germany) and Boulder Amplifiers. In addition to spinning vinyl on the AMG beauty shown in the photo, the event will debut in America Boulder's new 866 integrated amplifier.

A hi-fi show at a racecourse? If the Warsaw show (coming up the weekend of November 8th-10th, 2019) can be successfully held at a football (soccer) stadium, why not have one at a racecourse? Especially the UK’s premier horse racing venue, and home to Royal Ascot. The UK’s largest and most iconic Grandstand is an innovative venue for a hi-fi show and, blessed with a dedicated electricity substation, is capable of delivering great sounds once the exhibitors have tackled the room acoustics.

Rainbo Records' President Steve Sheldon announced the other day that after pressing records for 80 years the company would close and liquidate its assets—and not because of a business slowdown. Quite the opposite as everyone knows.

Pro-Ject’s Heinz Lichtenegger is not shy about expressing his contempt for el-cheapo turntables coming from China and elsewhere. He thinks these mediocre-sounding turntables ruin the sonic experience for a young generation getting into vinyl.

* (Not now convinced these were cut from tape).The Beatles just announced The Beatles: The Singles Collection, a limited edition, collectible box set containing 23 180-gram vinyl singles cut by Sean Magee from the original mono and stereo singles mix tapes. Between 1962 and 1970 The Beatles released 22 singles. Of the 44 A and B sides, 29 were not included on the group's British albums—singles were usually omitted in Britain, though the released albums contained more tracks than were issued per album in The United States (you probably already knew that!).

For as long as I’ve reviewed high-performance audio equipment, I’ve repeatedly iterated that to bring young people into the hobby, audio manufacturers need to make excellent, affordable, and convenient products. If a product fails any one of those criteria, hundreds of potential audio enthusiasts are turned away and save for a few outliers, hi-fi continues to be a hobby for old, mostly white men.