Audio Research Reference News Today

Have you ever wondered why audiophile extravaganzas often feel like they're confined to your average Holiday Inn? Yes, we get it: the rooms, the isolation, but come on—doesn't high-fidelity deserve a high-class venue? Enter the UK Hi-Fi Show Live 2023, staged at the Ascot Racecourse Grandstand from Sept. 29 through Oct. 1, is where high-end audio got the royal treatment it's long yearned for. Ascot’s Grandeur: Where History Meets Acoustic Mastery

Even if Darren Myers's name isn't familiar, you still may have heard—or at least heard about—hi-fi components he designed, including the PS Audio Stellar phono preamp, which garnered Stereophile's Analog Product of the Year Award in 2020.

Armando "AJ" Conti, 1957–2016 As I began writing this column, the terrible news arrived that Armando "AJ" Conti, founder of Basis Audio, had died of a heart attack at 59. A talented designer of turntables and tonearms, AJ was one of the warmest and more thoughtful people in the High End. Whenever I entered the Basis room at a Consumer Electronics Show, I had to be prepared to spend the next hour or more talking with AJ—not only about audio, but about coffee, motorcycling, m...

Hear your disc collection at its very best with our pick of the best CD players on the market, budget to premium.