What news in 2023 struck you?

The news that newer and even upstart companies and eastern countries audio are selling budget HIFI at very good prices that can compete with more established brands like ARC, B&W, Vandersteen, McIntosh, Klipsch, Martin Logan, NAD, etc. I am thinking companies such as HiFi Rose, Denafrips, Q Acoustics, Eversolo, Line Magnetic Audio, FiiO, Shanling, Kinki, Topping, Willsenton, Buckardt, Daniel Hertz etc

To me, this is a very significant trend toward affordable or at least optional choices for HIFI buyers.

How about this one. "Unbelievable amount of hate towards MQA by people who don't use it and were never forced to do so...even after it was abandoned ". Maybe that ridiculously stupid trend will last into 2024.

Let’s look at this logically. There has never been a better time to be an audiophile. Electrostatic speakers, horn speakers, open baffle, etc. One can stream high definition files, Flac, MQA, and add the best DAC you can afford. CD’s are still with us and so are high quality transports. Vinyl is still here and a tremendous variety of turntables. Reel to reel, still with us. One can have class a, a/b, class d or tube amps. You can have a hybrid amp. Heck even cassettes are coming back as well as console stereos. No one ever got so upset about ipod sound and mp3 sound like they had with MQA. MQA was never going to replace all recorded music, that’s just ridiculous. I listened to some MQA albums that sounded great and some sounded terrible. Mostly it was the original recording that made the most difference in the quality of the sound. Cmon think about it... MQA was not something anyone need to get their panties bunched up about.