LATEST ADDITIONS

Paradigm exhibited its new Prestige 1000SW, 12" Subwoofer. Priced at $2999, the subwoofer uses a single 12" brushed-aluminum, high-excursion X-PAL driver in a sealed enclosure which is driven by a class-D, 1000W RMS (1700W peak) amplifier.

Jeff Rowland's Model 725 S2 monoblocks ($34,000/pair) have been out maybe four years, but now include new error-correction circuitry originally developed for the Jeff Rowland 625 S2. Also of import are ceramic circuit boards, 4-pole Jensen capacitors, and virtually immeasurable distortion from 20Hz–20kHz. The class-A/B amps deliver 330Wpc into 8 ohms, and have fully balanced transformer coupled inputs as well as switch-mode power supplies with power-factor correction. The display was passive, with Rowland's active system, complete with Nordost cabling, showcasing other products.

So new there isn't yet a firm US price (somewhere between $6-7k is the guess), the U1 is Lumin's latest high end network player with support for 32/384 PCM and DSD128. Tidal and Qobuz are built in and everything is run by the Lumin custom iOS and Android compatible music browsing app.

On the back are five types of digital output: USB, SPDIF, AES/EBU, BNC, and optical. Digital inputs include Gigabit Ethernet and USB for external or flash drives. Should arrive in the US next month.

None other than designer Terry Miles was on hand to introduce Spendor's "all-new top-of-line Spendor Classic" 3-way loudspeaker ($24,995/pair).

Good sound was a notable achievement given that the new Genesis Forte loudspeakers ($140,000/pair) had been shipped to Las Vegas a mere two days after assembly, and had only three days of break-in on them.

Roy Hall, the master of the "wee dram" (of single-malt Scotch) was demonstrating all this Creek wonderfulness with the Epos K3, three-way, floorstanding loudspeakers ($2395/pair) which, like the Creek gear that he distributes in the US, showcased beauty, charm, fine detail, and of course: a wee bit of drunken revelry.

Moon by Simaudio's new Neo ACE ($3500, left) looks and sounds and feels like a 21st-century version of a classic Marantz receiver. It is a 50Wpc, class-A/B integrated amp featuring Simaudio's MiND (Moon intelligent Network Device) digital library interface, and a high-resolution DAC with DSD decoding up to DSD256 and 32-bit/384kHz PCM.