The most expensive system at the show, costing about US$200,000, was this all-McIntosh system, based on two of the company's three-chassis monoblock amplifiers, their four-chassis preamplifier, and their speakers with too many drive-units to count. (Okay, there are 110 per channel—40 tweeters, 64 midrange units, and six woofers!)
Imagine that, Michael Fremer send me a link that isn't political—and it's about records.
"Business, and art, went on like this for years, fleecing the rich.
If you're an audiophile, that probably means you have tons of music that needs proper storage. So how do you do it? Do you have racks, shelves, boxes, drawers, or do you put it all on a hard disk and stick the original discs in the garage?
<I>Meet the new boss:</I> Harman Specialty Group, the division of Harman Consumer Group responsible for the Mark Levinson, Revel, and Lexicon brands, has a new president. John Batliner is a 12-year veteran of the company, and, most recently, executive vice-president of HSG. Wayne Morris, current president of the company, will remain active until the end of April.
Last week, www.stereophile.com posted an article concerning Pollara, Inc.'s Canadian Recording Industry Association–commissioned <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/032006cria/">144-page report</A> on the downloading habits of Canadian music consumers. We reported that the University of Ottawa's Dr. Michael Geist interpreted the Pollara data <A HREF="http://michaelgeist.ca/component/option,com_content/task,view/id,1168/I…; than the polling group did, in particular noting his conclusion that people who had downloaded music had legally purchased more music than their counterparts who had never done so.
The German Canton line of speakers has a new flagship: the Vento Reference 1 DC ($30,000). Looking closely at these beautifully finished speakers, I noticed that in the back panel of each the speaker there were about a dozen signatures. Could it be that some FSI visitors have been engaging in some audiophile graffiti? No. These are the signatures of the speaker's designers, including Canton's chief engineer Frank Göbl, and the people who built these specific speakers. I really like that.
Linn Products has moved in a major way into multichannel and multi-room systems, but some new products demo'd at FSI showed that they haven't abandoned the part of their customer base that just wants to listen to music in high-quality two-channel, in one room. For these folks, Linn had the Majik line: CD player ($4250), preamp with MM/MC phono stage ($3800), and 100Wpc amplifier ($3100). Very nice, well-balanced sound through Espek speakers ($5800), with an LP12 phono source.
The two most expensive systems at the show, each costing about US$200,000, were the all-McIntosh system, and the system using Pierre Gabriel Grand Master speakers and Jadis electronics/digital source. (Actually, the Pierre Gabriel system was "only" US$180,000, so you can afford a trip to France with what you would save over the McIntosh.) Did they sound impressive? Yes, but, personally, I have trouble relating to any system whose price is so far beyond the reach of ordinary audiophiles. Having said that, it's good to have systems like this at shows, so that people can judge for themselves what they offer in the way of sound quality. M. Gabriel himself was on hand to demonstrate the system featuring his speakers.
Fidelio Records, based in Montreal, has an impeccable—um—record of producing CDs and SACDs of the highest technical and artistic quality. Their latest SACD of the Nemesis percussion ensemble, played back on Verity Parsifal Ovation speakers ($24,000), with a gaggle of Nagra electronics and Esoteric SACD player, made one of the best sounds I heard at the show. Fidelio recording engineer René Laflamme did a comparison for me of the SACD and the backup analog master (Nagra open-reel), and I have to admit I preferred the clarity of the SACD.