Features

Welcome to Part 6 of our Capital Audiofest 2024 show report, the last iteration before the Thanksgiving holiday takes full hold! In this installment, Julie Mullins reports on what she saw and heard from Robyatt Audio, VPI, Bird of Prey, Tzar, Java Hi-Fi, and Quad. . .

Welcome to Part 4 of our Capital Audiofest 2024 show report! In this installment, Julie Mullins reports on what she saw and heard from Pure Fidelity, Vandersteen, EMM Labs, DS Audio, and AudioQuest. . .

Welcome to Part 2 of our Capital Audiofest 2024 show report! In this installment, Julie Mullins reports on what she saw and heard from Perpetuum Ebner, Ortofon, Phasemation, Synthesis, and Rethm. . .

Last week, Capital Audiofest ruled large in the Washington, DC area from November 8-10, 2024 — and, as always, I anointed our main product reviewer Ken Micallef to shoot as much video footage as he could of all the cool turntables and other analog-centric gear and goodies he came across at the show. CAF offers “a world of vinyl, gadgets, turntables, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and the mad audiophiles who love them,” as Ken has noted about the show in recent years, and CAF 2024 once again delivered on that promise in full. You too can see what Ken saw at the show in the 9-minute video we’ve just posted on our YouTube channel that you can also now watch in the story below. . .

Phil Lesh, co-founding bassist of the Grateful Dead, sadly passed away at age 84 on October 25, 2024, and he will be remembered by millions of fans for the brilliant, inspiring music he made over the course of his incredible career. AP editor Mike Mettler asked our resident Deadhead Mark Smotroff to put together a proper tribute, and he enlisted three other fellow Dead experts to help bid Phil a proper fare thee well. Read on to see what their respective choices are for Lesh’s finest moments on vinyl. . .

We’re back onsite at Toronto Audiofest, which was held during the weekend of October 18-20, 2024. Read Part 2 of Shanon McKellar’s TAF show report to see her firsthand experience with the turntable setups from two stellar companies, Oracle Audio Technologies and Stable 33.33. . .

Cassette tapes are in the midst of enjoying a major comeback — and perhaps it has been a somewhat unexpected development, at least to some. Read Leslie Shapiro’s insightful feature on the history of the longtime leading cassette manufacturer Maxell, the true origins of the infamous Blown-Away Guy, and the bigger-picture reasons for why the cassette format lives on (and on). . .