Our friend Ian is growing his empire!

Magnum Dynalab is now part of Colquhoun Audio!

Hard to find any actual information of impressively expensive stereo streaming devices. Really not sure what the idea is here for Axiom.

that is but one of the MD products

This morning's Axiom newsletter made it official.

I'm certain the audio industry needs consolidation, if we're to believe that the traditional audio industry will die off along with the baby boomers and Gen X. I can't think of anyone I know under age 50 who hasn't switched to a sound bar setup or "lifestyle"wireless system.

I'm not sure if I understand the business case for acquiring Bryston and MD, but I'll support Canadian business if their products makes sense to me.

Nothing on MD's website about it, however, from what I am seeing on YouTube and other platforms, these high-end streaming devices seem to be quite popular with the "high-end" two channel crowd, who, nowadays rather than dealing with vinyl, for convenience, they can consolidate all their music on these devices.

It is somewhat ironic in that despite the touting of analogue and turntables by this same group, if one attends one of these high-end, high priced boutique audio shows, when one enters the different rooms, despite a turntable that might be sitting on the rack, it generally goes unused while the demonstration is being conducted with music playing through some very expensive speakers by an expensive streaming device.

I had an interesting experience today when I accompanied a friend to a high end audio/video store. My friend was interested in auditioning some very high end speakers for two channel listening. Much to our surprise the sales associate was running all the music off an iPad which understandably is probably the most efficient/practical method for quick music selection. One important point the salesman missed was the fact my friend does not stream music and only plays vinyl. There were some very nice turntables in the store however not setup for auditioning. A missed sales opportunity I suppose?

Did you or your friend ask for a vinyl demo?

If it true was a high end shop, they would have had that setup ready, or able to quickly setup for a demo. With the challenges of the last few years, sales are important and the stores in the Toronto area work hard to get it right....at least the ones I have visited.

I gladly jettisoned all the LP's, CD's, and VHS I grew up with, so I'm deeply disillusioned by the comeback of physical media. They interfere with my goal of reaching peak laziness and entertainment-as-a-service.

Surprisingly their vinyl collection was sparse even though they sold some great turntables. We should have planned better and taken some vinyl to demo however we were in the area and stopped in for a look. My pal can go back on his own time.

Think the Magnum Dynalab purchase brought 3 things to Axiom
- a brand name
- tube stuff (for those who want such things)
- high-end streamers … which hopefully comes with some software expertise in that area