LATEST ADDITIONS

CES 2007
Reference 3A's Flagship, the Grand Veena
Robert Deutsch  |  Jan 11, 2007  |  2 comments
Divergent Technologies’ Tash Goka introduced a new top speaker in the Reference 3A line: the Grand Veena ($7500/pair), which, in addition to two woofers, a midrange and a tweeter, also has a Murata supertweeter that covers the range from 20kHz to 100kHz. The sonic contribution of the supertweeter is acknowledged to be "not easily detectable by conventional means," but is said to improve the speaker’s spatial quality and have positive effects outside of its nominal operating range. The Grand Veenas sounded mighty nice driven by Antique Sound Labs' new Cadenza amps ($6500/pair).
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CES 2007
Music Hall Trio
Stephen Mejias  |  Jan 11, 2007  |  0 comments
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CES 2007
Audio Analogue Enigma
Stephen Mejias  |  Jan 11, 2007  |  5 comments
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CES 2007
Unison Research Preludio
Stephen Mejias  |  Jan 11, 2007  |  0 comments
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CES 2007
Opera Loudspeaker's Linea Classica
Stephen Mejias  |  Jan 11, 2007  |  11 comments
A lovely line of Italian loudspeakers. It's no wonder Sam Tellig is such a fan. The speakers almost ask to be touched.
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CES 2007
Dynaudio Gets High-End Sound from the iPod
Kalman Rubinson  |  Jan 11, 2007  |  1 comments
At the Las Vegas Convention Center, Dynaudio was showing—and playing—its new self-powered MC15 mini speakers. In three setups, they were connected to a laptop, a gaming console and an iPod dock, each setup clearly indicating that its high quality sound was an improvement over the usual powered computer speakers. Sporting a 6" woofer, an Esotec soft-dome tweeter (with 1st-order crossover at 1.5kHz), and a pair of 50W amps, this $1299/pair package, including elegant table mount, would be even more suitable as the basis of a deskop system with a good disc player.
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CES 2007
Ambience from Australia
Robert Deutsch  |  Jan 11, 2007  |  2 comments
The Australian Ambience Reference 1800 ribbon hybrid loudspeakers ($13,995) use ribbons of their own design, combined with a vented bass section. The cabinet is sleek, with a narrowing toward the top. I quite enjoyed listening to these speakers, and, ever on the lookout for a cost-effective components, I was impressed by the fact that they were being driven by relatively inexpensive Vincent electronics (SAT-1 preamp, $1495, SAT-100 monoblock power amps, $2495/pair). Designer Tony Moore was on hand to demo the speakers.
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CES 2007
Affordable Avalons
John Atkinson  |  Jan 11, 2007  |  5 comments
Every CES has its impressive, cost-no-object audio systems, but one of the better sounds I heard at the Show, in terms of superb vocal articulation and an excellent overall balance, came fron a relatively affordable system in the Avalon suite in the Aladdin Hotel. Based on the Colorado company's new NP2.0 two-way towers ($1995/pair), which feature two Kevlar-cone woofers and Avalon's proprietary composite-dome tweeter, driven by an Ayre Acoustics AX7 integrated amp and a Cary CD306 player, the system showed that you don't have to drop megabux on a system to get musically satisfying sound.
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CES 2007
Jonathan Scull—Demagnetize This
Kalman Rubinson  |  Jan 11, 2007  |  5 comments
Erstwhile Stereophile scribe Jonathan Scull, now firmly established in the worlds of public relations and marketing, conducted an in-room presentation of new Furutech products including an LP flattener, an LP demagnetizer and, with especial relish shown in the picture, an LP degausser. Also, shown were some beautiful AC receptacles and <$100 power cords with various connectors. Beautiful stuff.
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CES 2007
Simaudio's Lionel Goodfield—Over the Moon
Robert Deutsch  |  Jan 11, 2007  |  0 comments
Canadian manufacturer Simaudio is on a roll, with product introductions at just about every CES and Home Entertainment Show. This time, it was the Moon P5.3 preamplifier ($3500), with numerous "trickle-down" design features from the flagship Moon P7 and P8, and the Moon W5.3 amplifier (150Wpc, $4800). I managed to catch VP Marketing Lionel Goodfield with a less-serious-than-usual expression by telling him to imagine that they got a letter from Best Buy, saying that they want to carry the high-end Simaudio brand in all their stores and will pay full retail price just to have this privilege. :-)
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