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good to know where the state of the art lies. one version of it anyway.
But the sound! The delicacy of touch on a Duke Ellington piano LP, the uncolored, palpable midrange on a Mozart piano concerto recording, the midrange dynamics on a recording of a tenor ending his song with a head-back, chest-forward blast of a high note. . . I kept waiting for the system to crap out, but it just soared. And soared. This was one of the first rooms I visited at the 2012 CES and there were very few rooms that equaled the sense of musical communication that this system possessed. From 32 single-ended watts! For $599,000!!
"...sense of musical communication that this system possessed. From 32 single-ended watts! For $599,000!!"
Yet, according to Stereophile Sept. 2009 Michael Fremer article, the MAXX 3's efficiency is rated at 90dB, even at maximum power 32 watts, such system would only be able to deliver 108dB in stereo should you sit one meter away from the speakers. That is to say that technically, this system is unable to deliver live music dynamics reproduction in a generous listening room...
High Fidelity to what? Your bank account perhaps...
I've heard alot of systems in hotel rooms, dating back to my teenage years at TAS (and thinking of my first CES in 1997) but this system was simply jaw-dropping. I didn't get a chance to stay long (but fortunately got a chance to s/w Ester Lamm - and she really gets it, it was a sincere pleasure) but what I heard actually re-defined, for me, what was possible in an environment like that. Hats off to EVERYBODY involved.
BRAVO
Unfortunately at the last moment we had to replace Benz Micro LP S cartridge, which is stated in the bill of equpment, with the Zyx Omega cartridge. Coincidentally both cartridges have the same price $5000.
Aleks Bakman, Onedof Turntable