Jason Victor Serinus

On the face of it, playing and streaming digital music files is a straightforward process. You direct data from various sources—some local, some "in the cloud"—perhaps via a reclocker/signal conditioner to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC). "And the music comes out here."

Not so simple. Bits, it seems, aren't bits, or not only. A digital datastream is also an analog signal. Noise and other signal errors endemic to multi-function computers not designed primarily for music playback can affect how music sounds. And then there are the practical issues of setting up and connecting everything optimally, and then organizing music files correctly, which can be especially difficult when ripping files from multidisc sets.

Kansas City Symphony/Michael Stern One-Movement Symphonies, Sebastian Fagerlund: Nomade • Water Atlas and Andrew Von Oeyen: Bach • Beethoven.

As she moves quietly across the huge scoring stage at Skywalker Studios toward the large, comfortable control room that sits behind glass, it's obvious that Leslie Ann Jones is in charge. She wears no badge that proclaims her authority, although her professional title is impressive: "Director of Music and Scoring, Music and Scoring Recording Engineer and Mixer".

J.S. Bach: Cello Suites, Beethoven: Hope Amid Tears: Beethoven Cello Sonatas, Brahms: Symphony No.3, Serenade No.2, Nino Rota: Chamber Music and Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos.4 & 6.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.

A great concept—sound enough to serve as the foundation for an independent democratic nation.

Yet what's sound in one sphere doesn't necessarily apply to sound in another, namely the rooms in which our systems reside. As much as we audiophiles may wish to declare our independence from room resonances, image smearing from first-order reflections, slap echo, and every other environmental and speaker-related factor that can handicap system performance, no mere declaration will make it so. Not all rooms—and not all components—are created equal.

Even as I was admiring some of the handsomest audio gear I'd ever set eyes on, my thoughts kept returning to equipment of a very different sort.

Flash back maybe 40 years to my one-bedroom apartment on Elgin Park in San Francisco during the period when I was whistling for my supper and performing Puccini's "O mio babbino caro" in the Emmy-nominated Peanuts cartoon, "She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown." Cue the constant din of an elevated four-lane freeway, since demolished as a blight on humankind, which I tried to pretend was the sound of water in the accompaniment to one of Schubert's many "water and fish" songs.

"We are so proud of everyone who made T.H.E. Show 2021 come to life," texted show coordinator Emiko Carlin about what was the first post-pandemic audio show to take place in North America. "After more than a year of unprecedented losses, this was no doubt a true celebration of audio and musical connection. We are thrilled that 1416 unique attendees showed up to reconnect, and we are delighted that [they] all did it safely and responsibly. As the first audio show in the US to open, and one that had to honor venue attendance caps, we are over the moon with how of T.H.E. Show 2021 turned out. We can't wait for our next event!"