LATEST ADDITIONS

Ray Kimber of Kimber Kable was in “You gotta” mode. After he told me that WBT, the 34-year-old German company that supplies connectors and cable terminations to hundreds of manufacturers worldwide, had a new, environmentally friendly facing process that made for better sound, I arranged to meet with WBT founder and CEO Wolfgang Thoerner on Sunday morning to discuss their new "WBT-PlasmaProtect" PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) plasma process.

If you, like me, tend to associate MartinLogan with electrostatic transducers, you may be surprised to learn that their more traditional Motion line accounts for most of their sales.

My last exhibit in one of the multi-tower Gaylord Hotel’s 1500 rooms was sponsored by Portuguese music server manufacturer Innuos. I’ve been looking for a music server to review and, with Jim Austin’s approval, hope to tackle the top-of-the-line Statement ($13,750 for 1TB SSD up to $15,150 for 4TB SSD). Released last November, here at the show it reproduced music with impressive transparency, depth, color, and body.

What is this strange creature with an upper driver that looks like something from a Marvel movie? Is it benign, or is it the blob that obliterated Kansas?

Krell’s immensely energetic Walter Schofield was in the middle of a system description when I entered the room, so I didn't know exactly what I was hearing, but whatever it was, the fact that I’d just submitted my review of the Krell K-300i integrated before boarding a plane for Denver left me very eager to hear it.

Paradigm’s Canadian-designed-and-engineered Persona 7F loudspeakers, which have beryllium diaphragms, anchored a system that received additional grounding from the Paradigm Persona SUB ($6500). The sub’s six 8" woofers are powered by a 1700W “Ultra Class D” amplifier that, aided by DSP and other stuff, descends to a formidable 12Hz.

I hadn’t planned to visit the Göbel/CH Precision/Kronos/Bending Wave USA room, having spilled a lot of ink on Göbel and CH products at Munich High End. But, given that I’d heard everything in the room before and was familiar with the excellence of its sound, I wanted to see if it could surmount the sonic difficulties posed by the Gaylord Convention Center's huge rooms.