News

The 2017 Montreal Audio Fest starts tomorrow at its traditional venue, the Hotel Bonaventure Montréal (900 de la Gauchetière Ouest). In its current incarnation, this is the second year for the show after being "rescued" in 2016 by Michel Plante and Sarah Tremblay. Both had been long associated with the Canadian show before it was sold to the Chester Group in 2013.

Saturday March 25, 12–5pm, Value Electronics (35 Popham Road, Scarsdale, NY 10583) is presenting an advance preview of Technics' new "Grand Class" component series arriving this summer. Bill Voss, US Business Development Manager for Technics, will be demonstrating and discussing the new SU-G700 Digital Integrated Amplifier, the new SB-G90 floorstanding loudspeaker and the new, more affordable SL-1200GR turntable.

On March 16, audio manufacturer Luxman Corporation, now in their 92nd year, announced the establishment of a new US subsidiary, Luxman America: the first time in 30 years that the Japanese tube-amp specialist has had a corporate-owned presence here.

Beautiful sound was the order of the day at Tone of Music Audio (1303 Castro Street, Suite D, San Francisco, CA 94114), as the small retailer, headquartered in the heart of San Francisco's Noe Valley, held the first of two spring open houses. Judging from what the 30 or so visitors heard at the first open house, on March 18, those who show up for the second listening session on Saturday, April 1, between noon and 5 pm (RSVP to info@toneofmusic.com), are in for a treat.

"If you tried to give rock'n'roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry.'"—John Lennon

The recently-released Audirvana Plus 3 has become the first desktop music player for MacOS to include an integrated MQA Core decoder. To quote the press release, issued jointly by London-based MQA and Paris-based Audirvana, Audirvana's MQA Core decoder "enables the first origami 'unfold' and also authenticates the file using a blue or green light to confirm that the sound is identical to that of the source material."

On March 13, May Belt of PWB Electronics announced via e-mail that Peter W. Belt, the company's founder and her husband of many years, passed away on February 17. He was 87.