News

This past Friday, November 17, critically acclaimed French audio startup Devialet officially opened the doors to their first US standalone store right here in SoHo, NY. This store joins five other standalones globally (Paris, London, Berlin) and, as of yet, no future plans of additional US locations have been disclosed.

There's a lot happening, in Raleigh and Charlotte (featuring Michael Fremer's Turntable Set-Up seminar), and in Edmonton, Calgary, and Ontario.

Our final issue of 2016 kicks off with Robert Schryer recommending that doctors tell us to "take two Grateful Deads and call me in the morning." Meanwhile, for the 26th time, Stereophile's editors and reviewers have voted for the products that impressed them most in the past year. The results are in: 60 finalists and 9 winners in 7 categories; plus for the third year in a row, a section in which everyone nominated their personal product of the year. Some of the winners could be predicted, but others come from left field!

Wednesday, November 16, from 6–9pm, Command Performance AV (115 Park Avenue, Suite 2, Falls Church, VA 22046) is holding a Hegel Music Systems Event. Guest presenters will be Anders Ertzeid, Hegel's VP of Marketing and Sales, and Eileen Gosvig, Hegel's US Sales Manager, who will demonstrate the Rost integrated amp with enhanced Apple Airplay and the new Mohican CD player ($5000, above), which Art Dudley wrote about in his report from the recent New York Audio Show. Refreshments will be served.

On November 11, 2016, Veterans' Day, Wilson Audio Specialties announced that Daryl C. Wilson, 38, son of David Wilson and Sheryl Lee Wilson, has just succeeded his father as CEO and President of one of the world's leading high-end loudspeaker companies. Daryl, along with COO Korbin Vaughn, will now actively manage all aspects of Wilson Audio.

Wednesday November 9, 5–8pm, Dallas dealer Audio Concepts welcomes Dan D'Agostino, Wilson Audio's Peter McGrath, and John Quick from dCS to an open house, while in Maryland, Wednesday November 9 and Thursday November 10, 6–9pm, Gramophone celebrates its 40th Anniversary with a special two-day event at its Timonium and Columbia locations. Thursday November 10, 5–8pm, Southern California dealer Wilshire Media Systems hosts its Annual Fall Expo, Northern California dealer AudioVision San Francisco presents the "US Premier from Dynaudio New Contour Loudspeakers," 7:30–10 pm, and Ontario's Audio Excellence is hosting a Nordost Event as part of their "Meet the Manufacturers" series, from 4–8pm.

Saturday November 5, 1–7pm, Toronto's Wynn Audio , who demonstrated a Goldmund-Tidal-Thales system costing $1,135,196 at last weekend's TAVES show, are opening their new showroom at Unit 31-20 Wertheim Court, Richmond Hill, Ontario L4B 3A8.

Now in its fifth year, the UK-based Chester Group's New York Audio Show opens to the public this Friday, November 4, at 1pm in the Park Lane Hotel overlooking Central Park. (Friday hours are until 7pm.) The three-day show, a smaller version of what has come before, promises 30 exhibit rooms, half of which are "oversized," two ballroom-sized exhibits, and two more ballrooms filled with exhibits and vendors selling merchandise. All-in-all, the event, whose one-day visitor pass costs $30 ($26 in advance, with significant savings for multi-day passes) promises almost 110 brands.

Exactly what did Bob Stuart (above) say at that press event earlier this month at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF)? Stuart—CEO of the company MQA, short for Master Quality Authenticated—made an announcement about the Warner Music Group's (WMG's) transcoding of their catalog into MQA format, a project announced last May. But what exactly did he say?

Eager for answers, I arranged a conference call. Over the course of about half an hour, Stuart (with an occasional assist from Lisa Sullivan, MQA's Director of Marketing) answered all my questions and more.

Retailer Audio Den (2845 Middle Country Road, Lake Grove, NY 11755) is holding an evening with Doug Henderson, President of Bowers & Wilkins, and Costa Koulisakis, Vice-President Customer Experience of Moon By Simaudio, on Saturday, October 29. There will be three opportunities to attend this event: 5:00pm, 6:30pm, and 8:00pm.