New Products

It’s been seven long years since I last attended Capital Audiofest, the largest high-end audio show on the east coast of the U.S. This year’s show took place on November 11-13 at the Twinbrook Hilton in Rockville Maryland, which is the same venue as my last visit. The show grew significantly in the interim, with five full floors of the hotel taken up by demos, but it maintains the same casual look and feel and a strong focus on two-channel, audiophile-centric systems.

Polk today announced plans to expand its popular Monitor XT Series of speakers with an entry-level subwoofer rated down to 24Hz.

The MoFi SourcePoint 10 is the latest speaker from the talented and prolific Andrew Jones, chief loudspeaker designer for MoFi Electronics. It's one of the most exciting product debuts from this year’s Capital Audiofest high-end audio show. After a relaxing and enjoyable demonstration that led me to conclude these 10-inch concentric-driver loudspeakers offer the best bang-for-the-buck in the building, I asked Andrew if he was up for an interview and here's the result.

The new SVS Prime Wireless Pro SoundBase ($699) is a compact streaming integrated amplifier equipped with 2-channel class D amplification and a 24-bit/192kHz DAC. It connects via Wi-Fi, offering wireless connectivity via Play-Fi, AirPlay 2, Chromecast, plus it has Bluetooth 5.0 with AAC and aptX support. For wired connections, it has HDMI ARC/eARC, analog RCA, 3.5mm aux, optical-digital, and Ethernet. For simple 2-channel systems where you don't need a surround-sound AV receiver, it is an easy way to get great stereo sound using the speakers of your choice.

Nobody ever went broke betting that the latest turntables and phono stages from the Austria’s Pro-Ject delivered good sound and high value. With that precept in mind, I headed to Brooklyn’s trendy Café Kitsune last week to attend a demonstration of the company’s new “True Balanced Connection” turntables and phono stages.

B&W bonds with Bond, LG TVs get WiSA-certified, interest in quality sound is on the rise, and streaming bundles gain favor.