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The tears were starting to roll down my cheeks at the Vancouver Audio Festival Friday night – not because of any sadness – because of the ongoing bouts of deep, rolling belly laughs I was having while connecting with some old friends and new at Hi-Fi Centre during the celebrations at the start of their third annual audiophile and music lovers get together.

The Vancouver Audio Festival is back for a third year in a row April 26th and 27th with host Hi-Fi Centre promising to deliver more of everything that owner Igor Kivritsky and his staff have brought to this West Coast audio experience since the Chester Group left the city.

For those looking at upping their Audio Research high-res digital/Redbook game, the Minnesota-based company has just announced the CD9SE and CD6SE transport/DACs which feature fully-redesigned faceplates to match ARC’s Reference and Foundation Series.

In my experience clean, protected power is a key element to help in getting the best performance from delicate digital-centric source components like DACs, media servers, streamers or combos thereof.

It was only a matter of time until the big blue meters swung around to point the way towards streaming-audio software palanquin Roon and all the hassle-free and optimized listening that comes with that compatibility.

PS Audio’s Stellar Line of gear is no stranger around here, with the M700 mono blocs and Gain Cell DAC having spent a few months in the bungalow with me last summer and earning great praise for their price/performance ratio and also an AudioStream Editor’s Choice Award 2018 for the Gain Cell DAC.

The email came as no great surprise, but even though I was aware that John Atkinson was making preparations to leave the bridge as captain of Stereophile, seeing it in black and white on my laptop screen this morning gave me a bit of a jolt.