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Sponsored: Pulsar 121
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PSB BP7 Subwoofer Unveiled
Sponsored: Symphonia
Apple AirPods Pro 3: First Impressions
Sponsored: Symphonia Colors
Sonus faber Announces Amati Supreme Speaker

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The Audio Note UK Room

Audio Note UK is one of those companies that makes entire systems, including cables, so that you don't need to look elsewhere for compatible products—same-brand audiophile systems have the theoretical advantage of using components that were made to work well together. This can also, theoretically, avoid misfires when trying to match different components, especially those made by people who don't share the same design philosophies, or just don't listen to music the same way.
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The Anthem/Paradigm room

The Anthem/Paradigm system may have been simply assembled, but don't let that fool you into thinking it wasn't sophisticated technologically or sound-wise. The Anthem STR integrated ($6000) outputs 200Wpc, comes with a hi-rez DAC, a USB audio input that supports up to 32/384 PCM, a pair of MM/MC phono inputs, and offers room correction. The speakers being fed by the Anthem were the fancy-looking five-driver, 95dB-sensitive, class-D bass-amplified Paradigm Founder 120H speakers ($11,000/pair; review to appear in the December issue of Stereophile).
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Focal, Naim, IsoAcoustics, Kimber Kable in the Kennedy Hi-Fi Room

The speakers on display in the Kennedy room included two pairs of Focal 926s, one of which, standing higher than the other, were threaded with IsoAcoustics Gaia ll feet, the other with the stock feet. Electronics included a Naim ND5 SS2 streamer ($5540 US), which comes with four 24/192 digital inputs, and a 70Wpc Naim Nait SX 3 integrated amp ($5540 US), while cabling consisted of Kimber Kable's Carbon series.
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The BSC Research/Apple Tree Room

The Apple Tree owner and distributor of BSC Research speakers must have done some research on what it would take to put this hard-nosed reporter on his good side because the first he did when I walked into his room was offer me a microbrewery beer. So sneaky. I took a rain check on the beer, but I wouldn't have needed a beer to enjoy the sound I heard in this room.
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Tri-Art in Toronto

The Tri-Art room, the first I visited, started me off on a good foot. It consisted of a presentation given by owner Steve Ginsberg and his colleague Jim Leveille, and it was fascinating. Tri-Art, if you recall from previous show reports, is the audio company that makes a series of electronics and open-baffle speakers whose enclosures, plus "jelly bean" acoustic treatments, are made out of solid bamboo. Steve loves bamboo as a material for its tonal qualities and also because bamboo is so rigid and impervious to splintering, you can mill it like you would metal, with a CNC machine. I also think bamboo has a wholesome, organic, warm aesthetic that's mother-earth sculpture-like.
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Audio Advice Live: a solo audio show in Raleigh

For years, Audio Advice Live has been an annual event, drawing enthusiastic audiophiles to the dealership's showrooms on Raleigh's Glenwood Avenue, next to Virgin Cigars. This year, Audio Advice Live was different. It was a fully fledged audio show, held like most such events at a conference hotel: the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel in that North Carolina city, with rooms sponsored and presented by a wide range of hi-fi and home-theater manufacturers and distributors.
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