Jason Victor Serinus

György Ligeti: Violin, Piano & Românesc Concertos, Isabelle Faust, violin; Jean-Frédéric Neuburger, piano; Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth, cond.; Tcherepnin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky: Prelude to La Princesse Lointaine; Capriccio Espagnol; Orchestral Suite, NDR Radiophilharmonie/Stanislav Kochanovsky.

As someone who has repeatedly reaped the sonic benefits of MQA, I found the MQA Labs press release tantalizing. "MQA Labs Debuts FOQUS ADC Design with First Ever Demonstration, Showcases Full Technology Suite," it declared, then continued, "Highlights will include a first listen to audio captured with a FOQUS ADC chip, showcasing the enhanced clarity made possible by a reimagined decimation process." The press release promised further surprises, including "a walk-through of our new and upcoming studio plug-ins, offering creators powerful tools for managing impulse response and noise shaping," and "a showcase of QRONO d2a, our playback solution that delivers unmatched transparency and time performance across all audio formats."

"Our new Octave Jubilee class-A mono amplifier has a slightly different sound than the Jubilee Mono SEs you reviewed three years ago," said Andreas Hofmann. Hoffman is the founder and chief engineer of Germany’s Octave Audio, and he was talking about his forthcoming push-pull monoblock, noting that the amp outputs 160W in class-A lower-power mode and 280W in class-AB high-power mode. The Octave Jubilee’s projected price is $85,000/pair without potential tariff hikes.