"This wasn't our choice of music," whispered German Physiks' Robert Kelly when I entered the room they were sharing with Danish electronics manufacturer Vitus Audio. "No problem," I whispered back, " I love Howard Shore's symphonic score to the movie trilogy Lord of the Rings," which a visitor had asked to be played.

The speakers were the Borderland Mk.IV ($34,995/pair), driven by a Vitus SCD-010 CD player ($20,000), Vitus SL-10 line stage ($28,000 wity system remote), and a pair of SM-010 40W class-A monoblocks ($50,000/pair). The sound was open and transparent, as it should be given the price of the system!

I remain intrigued by the German Physiks speakers, which use, like the old Ohm designs, a bending-wave drive-unit to cover almost the entire audioband. In the case of the Borderland, the drive-unit's cone is made from carbon-fiber and covers the range from 190Hz to 24kHz, a downward-firing 12" woofer performing the bass duties.