LATEST ADDITIONS

Ken Boyce's Cake Audio of San Clemente united many well-respected brands in a fine system that impressed many show goers. At the top of my "Wow, this is good" list were the lovely piano timbres on a 45rpm pressing of Eugene Istomin performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No.24, and good old Elvis' absolutely fabulous, prime voice, do-with-me-what-you-want rendition of "Fever." Not yet the overdone cynic of his later years, Presley perfectly gauged every single syllable and nuance in his surprisingly tasteful, no questions left to ask performance. Need I say that it would not have sounded half as mesmerizing if the gear had not been up to snuff?

This was a system tailored for mellow listening. In a room large enough for a Presidential Ball, timbres were spot on through Voss Luxury Audio gear. Whether on Dominique Fils-Aimé's oft-encountered "Birds," Stacey Kent's "The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain," The Bahamas' "Any Place," or an LP of vocalist Terry Evans and Dutch guitarist Hans Theessink performing "Got to Keep Moving," vocals sounded great and their accompaniment consistently smooth, laid back, and inviting.

In an extremely large 2nd floor room, products from two US distributors, Reference Components and Audio Skies, joined forces in a single, powerful all-analog system. Of special note, on the LP Paris, were the absolutely compelling soaring silvery highs that Hilary Hahn's violin produced as she flew through Prokofiev's first Violin Concerto.