LATEST ADDITIONS

The revision of the Sasha to Mark II status involves a number of improvements, the cumulative effect of which, according to Peter McGrath, is quite significant. The Sasha II has the same midrange and woofer as the original Sasha, but the tweeter is all new—a convex rather than a concave dome as used previously. The tweeter and midrange baffle materials are different from those in the original Sasha, and the effect is a 34% reduction in resonant modes. The mechanism allowing the mid/tweeter module to be tilted, to "focus" the sound, has been revised so that the focusing can be more precise.

A highlight of the Lifetime Achievement award party was another performance by soprano Sophie De Cruz, this time joined by baritone Julianne Horbatuck, her partner in an upcoming production of Lucia di Lammermoor. She sang Musetta's waltz song from La Bohème, tossing off high notes with abandon, and the two of them blew the roof off the place with a duet from Lucia. Pianist Dominic Boulianne provided unobtrusive but effective support.

I have found that, under show conditions, some of the sweetest sounds often come from the smallest systems; so it was in the room sponsored by distributor VMAX, where a Hegel H80 integrated amplifier with onboard D/A and five digital inputs, including USB ($2000) drove a lovely pair of Triangle 30th Anniversary Comete loudspeakers ($1800/pair), with a Hegel CDP-2A CD player ($2600) used as a transport.