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In my last three columns, I wrote about how streaming is changing the ways people discover and experience music. In my January feature, “The State of Streaming,” I looked at streaming services that deliver lossless CD-resolution and high-resolution music. In “The Name Game,” published February 1, I wrote about how streaming has given rise to whole new classes of audio components, and set out to establish some definitions. And in my March feature, “Rules of the Game,” I discussed the software protocols that enable these new components to talk to one another, and compared their benefits and drawbacks.

In last month’s feature, I looked at the various kinds of components that can make up a Simplifi’d music system. As I noted then, networked music systems include three broad classes of components that traditional hi-fi systems don’t: servers, which send audio data (and metadata) over a home network; streamers, which receive and render that data; and controllers, with which users select music and control its playback.

I sometimes wonder if the name of this site, Simplifi, contradicts its stated mission to cover “convenient, lifestyle-oriented hi-fi,” per the blurb on the SoundStage! Network portal.

It’s the start of a new year -- and, depending on your math, the beginning of the 2020s or the end of the 2010s. Do the 2020s officially begin on January 1, 2020, or on January 1, 2021? Whichever, it’s time to look at the top audio trends of the past year and the past decade.

Judging by the crowds at Audio Video Show 2019, held Friday-Sunday, November 8-10, in Eastern Europe hi-fi is a family affair. The 23rd edition of the show was held in three venues in central Warsaw, in Poland: the Radisson Blu Sobieski and Golden Tulip hotels, and the PGE Narodowy, or National Stadium.

What would you rather do on a glorious Canadian autumn weekend: Go for a hike in the woods? Do some urban exploring? Listen to great audio equipment in a suburban hotel?

Over the weekend of October 18-20, 3500 people chose the third option, spending hours or days at the second edition of the Toronto Audiofest, held at the Westin Toronto Airport Hotel in Mississauga, Ontario.

On the various websites of the SoundStage! Network you’ll find reviews of all kinds of source components -- CD players, streamers, DACs, turntables, cartridges, and phono stages. But to my knowledge, in its 24-year history SoundStage! has reviewed only one smartphone: the LG G7 ThinQ.

Is classical music in danger of dying “a digital death”? That prospect worries Thomas Steffens, CEO of Amsterdam-based Primephonic, a streaming service that specializes in classical music. “The world is moving toward streaming, where there are no CD stores anymore, and download stores are disappearing,” Steffens told me in an interview. “At the same time, classical music is massively underrepresented on streaming services. Classical music accounts for 5% of all global music consumption, but only 1% of streaming music, and 0.5% of streaming royalties.”

Is a music-management application that costs $499 USD expensive? That’s what you’ll pay for a lifetime subscription to Roon, and I’ve occasionally called it “an expensive option.” If you don’t want to plunk down half a thou, you can pay $119 for a one-year subscription.

If anyone made a list of the 21st century’s most successful hi-fi speakers, that list would surely include the KEF LS50, introduced in 2012 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the BBC LS3/5a minimonitor. Since then the LS50 has received countless honors, including Reviewers’ Choice and Product of the Year awards from SoundStage!.

There’s no doubt about it: Munich’s High End is the greatest audio show on earth. But don’t let the name scare you. High End isn’t only about big, expensive gear -- not that there’s anything wrong with that. Many affordable components made their debuts at this year’s show.

  1. Active Voices, Part Two: Axiom Audio's Andrew Welker
  2. Montréal Audio Fest Simplifi'd
  3. Active Voices, Part One: Elac's Andrew Jones
  4. Let's Keep it Simple
  5. A Roon of One's Own
  6. How I Simplifi'd My Wi-Fi
  7. Are Downloads Dead?
  8. Hi-Rez Streaming: Tidal vs. Qobuz
  9. Toronto Audiofest 2018 Simplifi'd
  10. How I Simplifi'd My Hi-Fi
  11. Time to Celebrate: Five Years of Google Chromecast
  12. How Good Can Voice Recognition Get?
  13. Are Smart Speakers Any Good for Audiophiles?
  14. High End 2018, Simplifi'd
  15. Is the Smart Speaker a Dumb Idea?
  16. What's Up with Apple AirPlay 2?
  17. The Spotify Dilemma
  18. CES 2018, Simplifi’d
  19. Farewell, CES
  20. Room Tunes
  21. Social Streaming
  22. CEDIA 2017, Simplifi’d
  23. Classical Prime Time
  24. The Röst Reconsidered
  25. High End 2017, Simplifi'd
  26. Vinyl: There's an App for That
  27. Metadata: Life with Roon
  28. The Internet and Audio: The Good, the Bad, and the Impossible
  29. The State of Streaming
  30. CES 2017, Simplifi'd
  31. Why "Simplifi"