LATEST ADDITIONS

There was something for everyone in Sunil Merchant's Sunny Components room. Even if you didn't have a spare half million dollars to give for great music reproduction, you could still listen to MoFi's Lenny Mayeux spin vinyl on the Brinkmann Taurus turntable with 12.1 tonearm ($21,000) and Koetsu cartridge ($3995). Amplification was a CH Precision M 1.1 Amplifier ($54,000), L1 line preamplifier ($34,500), P1 phono stage ($31,000), and X1 dual power supply powering the P1 and L1. And if you had questions afterwards, you could always approach Merchant, Mayeux, or CH's Ralph Sorrentino.

Lest you think I've left something out of this headline, I haven't. The 24lb Heavenly Soundworks active FIVE17 loudspeaker ($10,000/pair), shown at T.H.E. Show with matching stands ($1000/pair), needs only a computer or other streaming/choice and some cabling to do its thing.

Nothing has changed with Spatial Audio's M3 loudspeaker ($4950/pair) since the last time I heard it. The design is the same, as is the speakers' ability to totally disappear at very close range.

After a 15-year hiatus, Italy's Zingali Acoustics returns to the US courtesy of importer/distributor Reference Components Ltd with the Twenty 1.2 EVO Thirtieth Anniversary Edition loudspeakers ($21,045/pair in walnut finish). To these ears, the re-introduction is notable, because Hilary Hahn's violin sounded glorious on her performance of Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No.1. Sweetened by Cary Audio's 27Wpc CAD-805 RS single-ended triode monoblocks ($15,995/pair) with a host of new, old, and NOS tubes and a Cary SLP-98P preamplifier ($4995) with Tung Sol tubes from the 1940s, the sound was magical.

I wonder if France would have been the same had Marie Antoinette had access to a system like this. Dominating the view in this room, presented by San Clemente, California's Cake Audio (not the Czech audio manufacturer), was the joint US premiere of the striking Alsyvox Botticelli ribbon loudspeakers ($92,000/pair + $30,000 optional external crossovers) and Vitus SS-103 stereo amplifier ($40,000).

Darrin O'Neill's Audio Limits, located outside Las Vegas, showcased an impressive system that included the debut of the Audiovector R8 Arreté ($69,995/pair) and Thrax Libra 300 Differential Balanced 300B tube preamplifier ($57,500). The four-way speakers are claimed to have a frequency range of 22Hz–52kHz, 92.5dB/2.83V/m sensitivity, 8 ohm impedance, and the capacity to handle up to 500W power.

Rick Schulz's High Fidelity Cables system threw such a huge soundstage that I needed to go back a row or two to take it all in. When I did, it sounded tremendous, as in positively three-dimensional with a smooth and pleasing top.