A Purposeful Grimace & A Terrible Sound - Lavardin ”Memory Distortion” | Spotify Platinum | Products from Audio Video Show 2022

In this week’s first segment (3:54 to 26:09), hosts Brent Butterworth and Dennis Burger dig into a review of the Lavardin ITx20 amp and discuss the manufacturer’s claims about “memory distortion” and how its circuitry eliminates that. This leads to a larger discussion about another big bugbear in the audio industry: the time domain.

Next (27:03 to 41:30) they unpack the news that Spotify is supposedly introducing a new $20 Platinum pricing tier that adds lossless hi-fi audio, as well as some other new features that are ill-defined as of yet. Will listeners be willing to pay $20 a month for CD-quality music, or is Spotify hoping the other doodads are the biggest draw?

In this week’s final segment (42:21 to 55:17), Brent and Dennis continue a time-honored tradition of vicariously visiting an audio show by way of SoundStage! Global’s coverage thereof. This time around, it’s Audio Video Show 2022, which was held in Warsaw, Poland. 

Sources:

"Lavardin ITx20 Review" by Alan Sircom: https://hifiplus.com/articles/lavardin-itx20-integrated-amplifier/

“The Most Important Algorithm Of All Time” by Veritasium: https://youtu.be/nmgFG7PUHfo

"Spotify could be readying a hi-res audio Platinum plan" by David Nield: https://www.techradar.com/news/spotify-could-be-readying-a-hi-res-audio-platinum-plan

"Audio Video Show 2022 - Warsaw, Poland" by Doug Schneider and Jason Thorpe: https://www.soundstageglobal.com/index.php/shows-events/audio-video-show-2022-warsaw-poland