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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.

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!.

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.”

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.

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.

Most active speakers are all-in-one components, with built-in amplifiers and often built-in DACs as well, but no law says that active loudspeaker technology must be neat and compact. It’s possible to create an active speaker system with external amplifiers and crossover, like those offered by Bryston. Bryston’s active systems combine crossoverless versions of its Model T, Middle T, and Mini T speakers with the BAX-1 external crossover, plus amplifiers dedicated to each frequency range.

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