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Marantz Launches MCR 60n Compact Music System; Is This the New Stepping Stone to Components?

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New Marantz MCR 60n
Marantz MCR 60n

I continue to be impressed with the stream of new Marantz products coming from the Sound United team, which doesn’t appear to have skipped a beat since it was acquired one year ago by Harman International Industries, a division of Samsung Electronics. This week, the company announced the launch of a new music system called the MCR 60n. A compact combination component designed to appeal to music lovers everywhere, the 60n looks to hit the sweet spot of high-quality build, audio engineering excellence, technology features contemporary with today’s market, and an above-average ease of use that enhances the listening experience.

Learn more about the new Marantz MCR 60n…

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Strata-gee Spotlights Select CEDIA 2026 Smart Home Awards Winners

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CEDIA 2026 Smart Home Awards winners

The Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA), in connection with the CEDIA Expo 2026 (now owned by Apollo Global Management and managed by Forge), announced a series of Smart Home Awards for 2026. The tagline or theme for this contest was “Beyond What You See,” which was intended to suggest that these awards “captured the outstanding achievements in innovation, technical excellence, and design.”

A panel of judges assembled by the association considered all candidates’ entries and rendered their decision, with awards presented at a ceremony that took place at CEDIA Expo 2026 in Denver last week. In this post, I will highlight those winners I feel deserve even greater recognition.

See more on my picks from the 2026 Smart Home Awards…

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NY Times Points to the Surging Growth of Physical Media in RIAA 2026 Mid-Year Recorded Music Report

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RIAA Mid-Year Recorded Music revenue report

For a few years now, I’ve been writing about the surprising and durable increase in the rate of growth of revenues generated from what some refer to as “retro” physical media, as tracked by the Recording Industry Association of America. Now, the New York Times is noticing it as well. While streaming still remains the leading format, it is impossible to ignore the massive growth rates for physical media such as vinyl, CDs, and others.

Even the New York Times cited CD sales as a significant growth driver of recorded music revenue…

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Russound Appoints Michael Everett as VP of Sales

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Russound announced this week that it has selected and appointed Michael Everett as Vice President of Sales. With more than 20 years of industry experience, Everett brings extensive market intelligence and a vast skill set to help advance Russound’s business to the next level.

Learn more about Russound’s appointment of Michael Everett…

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CEDIA Expo 2026 Looks to be Another Scaled-Back Show

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The Sonos Booth at CEDIA Expo 2025

This is CEDIA Expo week, and many in the custom integration industry have travelled to Denver for the last CEDIA Expo to be held with the big blue bear. Next year, CEDIA Expo moves to Las Vegas, NV, and in 2028 to Orlando, FL. But this year, all signs point to a noticeably scaled-back event in Denver, with more exhibitors pulling off the floor and cutting back on events and attendance.

See what exhibitors and key service providers tell Strata-gee is impacting this year’s CEDIA Expo 2026…

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Apollo Creates Forge as the New Corporate Entity Combining Emerald and Questex Biz

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Apollo Global Management, the large private equity company that recently acquired both Emerald Holdings and Questex, announced this month the creation of a new corporate entity that will manage and control the combined business of both trade show aggregators from this point forward. That new corporate parent will be known as Forge.

Learn more about Forge and its connection to Emerald and Questex…

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Private Equity-Owned D-Tools Acquires Portal; Does This Deal Make Sense for Integrators?

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D-Tools logo and Portal logo

On Tuesday, Commercial Integrator reported that D-Tools has acquired Portal.io in a deal for which the terms were not revealed. Although the story called the deal a merger, it almost certainly was an acquisition by D-Tools, the larger of the two companies. D-Tools is majority-owned by Greybull Stewardship, a private equity company headquartered in Jackson, Wyoming. It also recently received a $12 million investment from StellarIQ, another private equity company led by John Heyman, former CEO of SnapOne.

Learn more about D-Tools acquiring Portal…

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Sony Quarterly Profit Jumps 32%; Company Raises Full-Year Forecast

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Sony graphic showing business divisions

In an overall challenging global economy, Sony Group recently released financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2026. The company reported a solid 8% or ¥216.2 billion of revenue growth for a total revenue in the quarter of ¥2.83 trillion. Even more impressive, the company reported that net income grew 32%. While operations did improve, the lion’s share of these overall gains was due to a favorable foreign exchange rates and the return of tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down the Trump administration’s “reciprocal tariffs” program as illegal.

Still, Sony Group had a lot of positives to talk about.

Read more on Sony Group’s fiscal 2026/Q1 results…

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AVPro Global is Again Recognized by Inc. 5000 as One of the Fastest-Growing Companies in America

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Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based AVPro Global Holdings, parent company of AVPro Edge, AudioControl, RTI, Bullet Train, Murideo, ProControl, and ThenAudio, is a leading house of brands in custom integration for both the residential and commercial markets. And now we’ve learned that the AVPro Global train just keeps rolling down the track, picking up momentum at every turn, based on the announcement this month that it has once again qualified for, and been recognized by, Inc. (which owns Inc. Magazine) as one of the 5000 fastest-growing privately owned companies in America.

Learn more about AVPro Global’s Inc 5000 recognition…

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With Wavecrest, Integrators Learn the Best Way to Solve Power Problems is by Preventing Them Upfront

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Two Wavecrest power conditioning devices

As our industry has transitioned from the retail consumer electronics trade to the more sophisticated, professionally installed home automation and smart home systems based on IP networks with sophisticated and sensitive control systems, the game has changed. Sensitive equipment like the electronics being installed today can be susceptible to power supply quality issues. This can lead to system performance problems, equipment failures, reduced system lifespans, unhappy clients, and profit-robbing additional truck rolls to try to solve often vexing, intermittent conditions.

Now integrators can offer an affordable and effective solution called Wavecrest that prevents these problems from occurring in the first place.

Learn all about Wavecrest…

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