$99,999 is a lot of money for almost anything. Let alone a pair of loudspeakers. It’s a king’s ransom. The ATC EL50 Anniversary Active loudspeakers roll into AXPONA 2026 carrying that number like it’s no big deal, but let’s not pretend otherwise.

I have a weird allergy to most speakers over $20,000. I’ve heard plenty, and once you get anywhere near six figures, I stop being impressed by specs and start looking for something that actually justifies the insanity. So far at this show, only two systems in that range have managed to do that. Everything else? Expensive, competent, and ultimately forgettable.

ATC doesn’t usually play the hype game. Their reputation is built on studio-grade accuracy and engineering that actually shows up in the listening. But at $99,999, none of that gets a free pass. The ATC Statement EL50 Anniversary loudspeakers needed to be mindblowing. Did they succeed? Let’s take a look.

Press breakfasts are part of the routine at trade shows like AXPONA 2026, but let’s not confuse hospitality with influence. I’m always up for a proper English breakfast minus the bacon or bangers because kosher rules still apply. Coffee, eggs, maybe some toast. That’s not a payoff. That’s survival.

What it actually is: “Morning, boys. You spent a few grand to get here. Here’s something so you don’t pass out before noon.” Fair enough. We appreciated it and moved on.

Let’s get one thing out of the way before anyone starts sharpening knives on social media. Breakfast doesn’t buy coverage. It doesn’t buy opinions. And it definitely doesn’t buy a pass on a $99,999 loudspeaker that better deliver something more than a polished sales pitch.

There was some noise last week from a certain Editor and Publisher on Facebook suggesting otherwise. That we’re all somehow in the pocket. That access equals allegiance. That’s a convenient narrative if you’re not actually in the room doing the work. And was he including himself in that rant? I have stories.

But here’s the reality. If a plate of eggs is enough to sway your editorial integrity, that says a lot more about you than it does about anyone sitting at that table.

Now that the air is clear, back to the part that actually matters. The gear.

Why the ATC EL50 Anniversary Costs $99,999

The ATC EL50 Anniversary is expensive for a very specific reason. It is not a passive loudspeaker that needs to be matched with external amplification. It is a fully active 3 way system with amplification, crossover, and drivers all engineered to work together as a single platform. The crossover is handled at line level using a fourth order Linkwitz-Riley active design with crossover points at 380Hz and 3.5kHz, which allows each driver to be controlled more precisely than in a traditional passive speaker. Each driver has its own dedicated amplifier channel with 200 watts for the bass, 100 watts for the midrange, and 50 watts for the tweeter, all using ATC’s discrete grounded source MOSFET Class A/B amplification running fanless with convection cooling.

ATC also builds its own drivers in house, and that has been central to its design philosophy for decades. The system is designed to cover a frequency range from 32Hz to 25kHz within a -6dB window, which is sufficient for full range reproduction in most rooms without relying on a subwoofer. Distortion is kept extremely low, with THD around 0.0015 percent just below rated power, and matched pair tolerance is held to ±0.5dB, which ensures consistency between channels. Maximum output is rated at 112dB per pair at one meter in anechoic conditions, which gives it enough headroom for larger spaces without strain.

The cabinet design follows the same thinking. The curved enclosure and softened edges are intended to reduce diffraction and improve off axis behavior, while the multi layer construction increases rigidity and reduces unwanted resonance. Each speaker stands just under 56 inches tall, over 18 inches wide, and nearly 14 inches deep, and weighs 139 pounds. This is a physically large and heavy loudspeaker, and that mass contributes to overall stability and reduced cabinet interaction.

Connectivity is straightforward but purposeful. The EL50 uses a balanced XLR input with switchable input sensitivity, along with a bass shelf adjustment from -2dB to +3dB to help with room integration. There is also a 12V trigger input and link for system control, and built in protection circuits for DC offset and thermal management with active limiting to maintain reliability under load.

In practice, you are paying for a system where the major variables have already been addressed at the design stage rather than left to system matching. That approach has long been part of ATC’s presence in professional studios, and it carries over directly into a product like the EL50.

The room at AXPONA 2026 was not especially large, which likely worked in its favor. The rest of the system included a balanced ATC preamplifier, along with an Innuos ZENith NG network player and a Playback Designs MPD-8 DAC. That digital front end alone totals close to $50,000, with cabling handled by WireWorld.

No Place to Hide at $99,999

Where do you even begin with something like this? Fine. Here goes.

I was the first one in the room. Of course I was. I’ll show up early for my own execution. Expectations were high, borderline unreasonable, but that comes with the territory at this level. I’ve been burned before by speakers in this price range. Big promises. Impressive specs. And then…nothing. Polite. Safe. Forgettable. I wasn’t in the mood for that again. I was still hungry.

There’s a moment most speakers completely fumble. That split second before the music actually starts. The air shifts, the room tightens, and you’re waiting for something to happen. Your brain knows what’s coming, but your body hasn’t caught up yet. When it’s done right, your heart skips. When it’s not, you’re already checking out before the first note lands.

ATC didn’t miss.

That first transient hit and something locked in. Not exaggerated. Not hyped. Just there—with a sense of presence and control that felt immediate and real. It didn’t creep up on you. It arrived. And it hit with the kind of conviction that makes you sit up without thinking about it.

It’s hard to explain without sounding ridiculous, but it felt like the first time you finally kiss someone you’ve been thinking about for way too long. There’s anticipation, sure, but then there’s that moment where it actually happens and it’s better than you built it up to be. More intensity. More weight. More passion. And suddenly you’re not analyzing anything anymore. You’re just in it.

And that was the first 20 seconds.

At that point, I wasn’t thinking about price, specs, or whether this was “worth it.” I was just trying to keep up.

Another huge positive? The bass is actually under control.

Not polite. Not neutered. Controlled. And that’s a big deal because this is where a lot of speakers in this category fall apart. They either overdo it to impress in five minutes or they hold back and sound like they’re afraid of their own capabilities.

The EL50 doesn’t do either.

If the bass is in the recording, it shows up with authority. If it’s not, the speaker doesn’t invent it. The midbass in particular is doing a lot of heavy lifting here—resolute, tight, well defined, and absolutely critical to how this speaker holds everything together. There’s no bloom, no excess weight hanging around where it shouldn’t be, and no sense that the room is being pushed past its limits.

And let’s be clear, this is not a small speaker. It looks imposing. The bass driver looks like it has a job to do and zero interest in compromise. But the presentation never tipped into something disproportionate or overblown. It sounded big, yes—but in a way that felt grounded. Real, for lack of a better word.

That’s the part that stuck with me.

It never overloaded the room. It never tried to dominate the space just because it could. It just scaled naturally with the music, which is harder to pull off than most designers would care to admit.

At some point, I realized I was mentally rearranging my entire review schedule for May and June just to figure out how to spend more time with these. That’s not normal behavior.

I will never be able to afford these. And that’s fine.

No, it isn’t. But it’s what I’ll be telling myself for a very long time. Bugger.

For more information: atc.audio

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The Beats Studio Buds+ are down to $99.95, a $70 saving off their $169.95 list price, and that gets you true wireless noise canceling, spatial audio, and sweat resistance at a price that most competing earbuds with this feature set can’t touch. For anyone using an iPhone or an Android device, these cover the bases better than most things at this price.

What you’re getting

The Studio Buds+ improved on the original Studio Buds in two meaningful ways: better ANC performance and the addition of spatial audio, which delivers a more immersive, three-dimensional listening experience on compatible content. The noise-canceling handles commuting and office environments well, and transparency mode is responsive enough to actually use when you need to stay aware of your surroundings.

What sets the Studio Buds+ apart from most earbuds at this price is the cross-platform compatibility. They pair seamlessly with iPhone through the Apple ecosystem while offering full Android integration through the Beats app, one-touch Google Assistant access, and Find My Device support. Most earbuds at this price favor one platform at the expense of the other; the Studio Buds+ don’t make that compromise.

The built-in microphone handles calls clearly, the IPX4 sweat resistance makes them a practical gym companion, and the compact charging case keeps the overall package travel-friendly.

Why it’s worth it

Spatial audio and ANC together in a wireless earbud typically push the price well above $100. The Beats Studio Buds+ at $99.95 bring both to a price point where the decision becomes considerably easier, particularly for anyone who switches regularly between Apple and Android devices and doesn’t want to sacrifice features to do so.

The bottom line

The Beats Studio Buds+ at $99.95 are a well-rounded wireless earbud at a price that makes the feature set look considerably more expensive than it is. The ANC, spatial audio, and genuine dual-platform compatibility add up to an earbud that’s difficult to beat at this price, and the $70 saving makes it the right time to pick them up.

Whoop, the makers of a screen-free fitness tracker of the same name, could soon have some competition. Fitbit teased its take on a Whoop-style band with the help of Steph Curry at the end of March, and based on a trademark filing spotted by Gadgets & Wearables, Garmin appears to be working on its own band that tracks similar health metrics.

This new Garmin wearable, called “CIRQA” in the trademark filing submitted in February, is designed to measure “the body’s physical parameters and other physiological data, bio-signals, and bodily behavior.” That could broadly describe the smartwatches and fitness trackers Garmin already sells. But the CIRQA apparently goes further, by also measuring “recovery from physical and emotional stress, human alertness level, and performance,” a set of more granular, wellness-focused features that could bring the unreleased wearable into the same ballpark as a Whoop.

Garmin accidentally leaked that it was working on a new wearable via a hastily removed store page in January, Android Authority reports. While some phantom web pages and a trademark do not guarantee Garmin is working on a new device, or that the band will be screen-free in the same way the Whoop is. If the company is preparing a competitor, though, the timing makes sense. Where other devices try to split the difference between tracking biometrics and offering real-time information or other smartwatch features, Whoop is decidedly data-first. Its wearables monitor as much information as possible through a nondescript band, and then analyze and display what it learned via a smartphone app. The approach is attractive to anyone tired of dealing with screens, and the growing number of people obsessed with optimizing their health. In fact, Whoop just raised $575 million on the back of its current success. It would make sense that Garmin and Google (via its Fitbit brand) would want a piece of the company’s audience, too.

Whoop-style bands are also a perfect fit for future uses of AI in health and fitness tracking. Google is interested in having users turn to Fitbit’s AI-powered health coach for everything from workout tracking to nutrition advice. If health data processing is going to happen in the cloud, and you’re going to have to pull out your smartphone to view that data anyway, it makes sense to sell a tracker without a screen.

Sick! The Federal Aviation Administration is targeting gamers in its most recent job advertisement for air traffic controllers. The administration’s annual hiring window opens at 12AM ET on April 17, and considering the ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers, it’s calling this a period of “supercharged hiring.” Rad! The FAA’s YouTube video draws parallels between gaming and directing air traffic, and notes that the average salary for the role after three years is $155,000. Hella!

The FAA is clearly seeking players who are at least old enough to remember the Xbox One and Bjergsen in the LCS, which puts would-be candidates around their early 20s at least. It’s either that, or the ad editors really just picked videos at random from the pile of stock footage marked gamerz. But I won’t lie, it made me smile to see that Xbox One logo appear out of nowhere. Nostalgia is a hell of a thing.

“To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt,” US Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said. “This campaign’s innovative communication style and focus on gaming taps into a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller.”

The FAA has been losing more air traffic controllers than it can hire and retain since the 2010s, and this trend only worsened during the pandemic in the 2020s, according to a report released in December by the US Government Accountability Office. The administration increased hiring every year since 2021, but at the end of 2025 it employed 13,164 air traffic controllers, 6 percent fewer than in 2015, the report said. At the same time, the number of flights in the air traffic control system increased by about 10 percent, to 30.8 million.

Or, as the FAA put it on the ATC hiring page: “Join the BEST AND BRIGHTEST, the elite squad of 14,000 controllers protecting 2.9 million daily passengers.” Applicants must be a US citizen, under 31 (maybe those video editors do know what they’re doing), and be able to speak fluent English. An aptitude test, medical screening and academy training follows, among other steps.

Hackers gained access to an API for the CPUID project and changed the download links on the official website to serve malicious executables for the popular CPU-Z and HWMonitor tools.

The two utilities have millions of users who rely on them for tracking the physical health of internal computer hardware and for comprehensive specifications of a system.

Users who downloaded either tool reported on Reddit recently that the official download portal points to the Cloudflare R2 storage service and fetches a trojanized version of HWiNFO, another diagnostic and monitoring tool from a different developer.

The name of the malicious file is HWiNFO_Monitor_Setup, and running it launches a Russian installer with an Inno Setup wrapper, which is atypical and highly suspicious.

Users reported that downloading the clean hwmonitor_1.63.exe from the direct URL was still possible, indicating that the original binaries were intact, but the distribution links appear to have been poisoned.

The externalized download chain was also confirmed by Igor’s Labs and @vxunderground, who reported that a fairly advanced loader using known techniques, tactics, and procedures (TTPs) is involved.

“As I began poking this with a stick, I discovered this is not your typical run-of-the-mill malware,” stated vxunderground.

“This malware is deeply trojanized, distributes from a compromised domain (cpuid-dot-com), performs file masquerading, is multi-staged, operates (almost) entirely in-memory, and uses some interesting methods to evade EDRs and/or AVs such as proxying NTDLL functionality from a .NET assembly.”

The researcher claims that the same threat group targeted users of the FileZilla FTP solution last month, suggesting that the attacker is focusing on widely used utilities.

The downloaded ZIP is flagged by 20 antivirus engines on VirusTotal, although not clearly identified. Some classify it as Tedy Trojan, and others as Artemis Trojan.

Some researchers on Virustotal say that the fake HWiNFO variant is an infostealer malware.

BleepingComputer has contacted CPUID to learn more about what happened, the date of the compromise, the affected versions, and what impacted users should do. A spokesperson has provided the following statement.

The same person told us that the hackers hit them at a time when the main developer was away on holiday.

Currently, it appears that CPUID has fixed the problem and now serves clean versions for both CPU-Z and HWMonitor.

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The Orion capsule carrying the Artemis II astronauts has successfully splashed down off the coast of San Diego at 8:07PM Eastern time on April 10. It signals the conclusion of Artemis II’s 10-day journey around the moon, which is meant to be a test flight for a future mission that would bring humanity back to the lunar surface. The Orion crew module carrying the mission’s astronauts separated from the service module at 7:33 PM. While the service module was designed to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, the crew capsule was built to bring the astronauts back home safely.

By 7:53 PM, Orion reached our planet’s upper atmosphere, where a six-minute communication blackout occurred due to the capsule heating up as it started its guided descent. The capsule has 11 parachutes, with its drogue parachutes being deployed at 23,400 feet to stabilize and slow it down. When Orion reached 5,400 feet above the ground, the drogue parachutes were cut off so that the three main parachutes could be deployed. That decreased the capsule’s velocity to 200 feet per second, enabling a safe splashdown.

NASA’s engineers conducted several tests while the capsule was in the water before the recovery team headed to the capsule on inflatable boats to extract the crew from Orion. By 9:34 PM, all four crew members were out of the capsule. They were then hoisted into helicopters and flown to the USS John P. Murtha dock ship, where doctors will assess their health.

Artemis II launched on April 1 with four astronauts on board: NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen. They traveled around the moon for almost 10 days, reaching distances no other crewed mission has before it. The astronauts took photos of the far side of the moon, the side we don’t see from our planet, including amazing closeups of the lunar surface using their smartphones. That makes them the first humans to directly and personally view the lunar far side.

During NASA’s post-splashdown news conference, the agency said it will announce the Artemis III crew soon. Artemis III will rendezvous with one or both commercial landers being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin in low Earth orbit, which will take humans to the lunar surface. It will test the lander’s ability to dock with Orion before NASA lands humans on the moon again.

Astronaut eats: they’re not just Tang and Space Food Sticks these days. NASA shared a look at the menu for the Artemis II astronauts, and it doesn’t sound half bad.

The Artemis II crew will enjoy more than 10 types of beverages, including coffee, mango-peach smoothies, green tea, apple cider, lemonade, a pineapple drink, cocoa and breakfast drinks flavored in their choice of chocolate, vanilla or strawberry. 

The most common food items they’ll eat include tortillas, wheat flat bread, vegetable quiche, barbecued beef brisket, mango salad, granola with blueberries, macaroni and cheese, tropical fruit salad, couscous with nuts, broccoli au gratin, spicy green beans, almonds, cashews, and butternut squash cauliflower.

NASA also reports that the astronauts can choose to spice up their meals — there are five different hot sauces available to the crew. And culinary flavorings available include maple syrup, chocolate spread, peanut butter, spicy mustard, strawberry jam, honey, cinnamon and almond butter. Sweet treats include cookies, chocolate, pudding, cake, candy-coated almonds and cobbler.

And, no, they’re not popping a flavor pill or sucking a sandwich out of a tube, like old sci-fi shows told us.

“Food aboard Orion is ready-to-eat, rehydratable, thermostabilized or irradiated,” NASA says. “The crew uses Orion’s potable water dispenser to rehydrate foods and beverages and a compact, briefcase-style food warmer to heat meals as needed.”

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s the longest of the week, the Saturday edition. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: N.B.A. team that plays at M.S.G.
Answer: KNICKS

7A clue: Guy with a nerdy, passionate interest
Answer: FANBOY

8A clue: Rudely merges
Answer: CUTSIN

9A clue: Standard number of bowling pins
Answer: TEN

10A clue: Inflated sense of one’s own importance
Answer: BIGEGO

13A clue: Arrived via airplane
Answer: FLEWIN

14A clue: History-making achievements, perhaps
Answer: FIRSTS

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Colonel Sanders’s fast-food chain
Answer: KFC

2D clue: Spiral-shelled mollusks
Answer: NAUTILI

3D clue: 1, 2 or 3, but not 1.23
Answer: INTEGER

4D clue: “60 Minutes” producer
Answer: CBSNEWS

5D clue: Colorful pond fish
Answer: KOI

6D clue: Thesaurus listing: Abbr.
Answer: SYN

10D clue: Closest pal, for short
Answer: BFF

11D clue: “Go on, ___!” (“Scram!”)
Answer: GIT

12D clue: Opposite of offs
Answer: ONS