LATEST ADDITIONS

I always approach the PBN Audio room with a mix of anticipation and trepidation. Eagerness for the huge images and power that Peter Noerbaek inevitably supplies, and trepidation for the state of my eardrums.

In a brand déjà vu with High End by Oz, Ken Boyce's Cake Audio of San Clemente showed Lansche 5.2 "singing flame" loudspeakers with their plasma tweeter ($55,000/pair in either white or piano black), different Vitus components, and Albedo cabling. Room dimension and acoustics were different, of course, but both exhibitors had to cope with the challenges of air walls and sonic bleedthrough.

I usually forego seminars and the like in favor of covering more active demos shows. But when Acora Acoustics announced, "A Very Special Listening Event with Joe Harley at T.H.E. Show," I decided to indulge in Saturday afternoon's tour of historic Blue Note reissues.

YG Acoustics' very fine-sounding midrange unit contributed to the lovely sound on YG Acoustics' Ascent loudspeaker ($19,800/pair). Easier to drive than the Colorado company's larger models, it uses the same drivers as in the Carmel and Hailey loudspeakers, but with a new waveguide on the tweeter.

Alma Music & Audio has recently gone bi-coastal, adding Alma East in Sterling, VA to its flagship Alma West store in San Diego. In one of their several rooms at the show, the dealership showcased Boenicke Audio's W8 SE loudspeaker in Walnut finish ($16,500/pair). I've always been intrigued by these unique solid-wood speakers, whose internal chambers are carved out by a CNC machine.

Tonian Labs was one of several smaller companies at T.H.E. Show that depend on direct sales and a few dealers to get their products to the public. I'm glad I encountered them again, because their Oriaco G6 loudspeaker ($4500/pair) united with a Denon 70Wpc integrated and Marantz CD player to deliver very clear and colorful sound.

This year, Sunil Merchant's Sunny's Components occupied a single room at T.H.E. Show in which to turn the spotlight on CH Precision's less expensive but hardly bargain basement 1 series. CH Precision's powerhouse line-up, shown below without the optional power supplies that can beef up performance, consisted of the CH Precision M1.1 stereo amplifier ($54,000), L1 stereo preamplifier ($34,500), P1 phono stage ($31,000 and up), C1.2 D/A processor ($36,000 and up) with 16× upsampling, and D1.5 SACD/CD/MQA transport/player ($41,000 and up).