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 heardor at least heard abouthi-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, 19572016 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 AJnot only about audio, but about coffee, motorcycling, metallurgy, or any other of his many passions.