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"Pints With Ayre," the series of videos produced by Colorado manufacturer Ayre Acoustics, has been regular viewing chez Atkinson during these pandemic times. Covering subjects like volume control design, amplifier gain stages, audio transformers, and listening tests, the series presents sometimes esoteric technical subjects in an easy-to-grasp manner.

In the latest episode of “Pints With Ayre,” I was invited to talk about a subject close to my heart, the how and why a review magazine’s reviews should be accompanied by measurements. You can find my current thoughts at the link in this article. I don’t think I gave too many secrets away!

Peter Wolter, owner of a hi-fi shop in the town of Orangeville, Ontario—about an hour's drive from Toronto—in another life worked in marketing for a major pharmaceutical company. This marketing experience undoubtedly informs Wolter's approach to audio retailing . . . he recently presented a vinyl playback evening, celebrating (a little early) the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Summer of Love, and, coincidentally, the renaming of his store. (The pieces of strudel in the picture came from Peter Wolter's family's bakery. And, yes, they were as delicious as they look.)

The first thing you notice is the rather large black foam rubber foot sitting (standing?) in the room. And then the swanky furniture and trendy layout.

All man hands were on deck for the US debut of the Italian-made Riviera Labs AFM 100 monoblock power amplifiers, brought to the show by Riviera Labs President of Sales and Marketing Silvio Delfino and Tone Imports' Jonathan Halpern. Also in attendance was Wadax SA's Brandon Lauer and Bending Wave/Göbel Loudspeakers distributor Elliot Goldman.

A new Polish turntable brand, BennyAudio, is poised to enter the United States via the Supreme Acoustic Systems distributorship. Given what I heard in BennyAudio's room at Audio Video Show 2024, aka The Warsaw Show, my audiophile buddy Scott might have gone to heaven and back if he’d been able to join me.

A Show like last week's Rocky">http://blog.stereophile.com/rmaf2007">Rocky Mountain Audio Fest presents me with conflicts. As a member of the press I should be spending my time covering the Show. However, I am also spending my time as a participant, in this case giving a series">http://www.stereophile.com/news/100807rmaf/">series of presentations in which I allowed Showgoers the opportunity to listen to the hi-rez masters of many of my Stereophile recordings and compare them with CD and MP3 versions.

At least one media conglomerate has seen the light. In a surprise move, German giant Bertelsmann">http://www.bertelsmann.de">Bertelsmann AG broke ranks with the music industry and settled its copyright-infringement lawsuit with embattled Napsterhttp://www.napster.com/">Napster;, in effect becoming the startup's tentative partner. The deal, reached on October 31, could mark the real beginning of the music industry's move into the Internet age. Bertelsmann is the parent organization of Bertelsmann">http://www.bmg.com/">Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), one of the world's major music labels, as well as online music retailer CDnowhttp://www.cdnow.com/">CDnow;.