KEF Debuts New Finishes for Blade One Meta and Blade Two Meta

Sennheiser Drops HDB 630 Wireless Headphones

LATEST ADDITIONS

RMAF 2011

Wavelength Tubes & Digital

John Atkinson Oct 15, 2011

I am always intrigued by Wavelength's combination of cutting-edge digital technology and tubes. Their room at RMAF featured new developments in both areas. Shown in the photo are the latest HS 24(32)/192 version of the Cosecant asynchronous USB DAC (left, $4000), which features the new Denominator D/A module with 9016 ESS converters, and the new Royal preamp (right, $7500). Wavelength's Gordon Rankin walked me through the design of the minimalist preamp. The input signal is taken to a transformer hat inverts the polarity and feeds high-precision Penny & Giles two-channel attenuator. The wipers of the attenuator are connected directly to the grids of two 71A triodes and that's it! (The third tube is a rectifier.) Because the single tube stage inverts polarity, the preamp output is again in correct absolute polarity.

RMAF 2011

Clarus Cables

John Atkinson Oct 15, 2011

Joe Perfito's Tributaries cable line is mainly found in home-theater systems but Joe launched a new brand at RMAF, Clarus, aimed at the high-end two-channel market. Significantly more expensive than the Tributaries equivalentsClarus Crimson balanced interconnect sells for $1500/1 pair and the Clarus Aqua $800/1m pair, compared with $400/1m pair for a Tributaries balanced cableClarus cables are designed by Jay Victor, who, I was told, has previously contributed cable designs to Monster and AudioQuest, among others. The speaker cables feature a combination of a large-gauge rectangular conductor and multiple Litz-wound conductors. All the cables feature polyethylene dielectrics and all PC-OCC copper conductors.

Joe was still fine-tuning the systemB&W 803 Diamond speakers, McIntosh MCD100 CD player/DAC and McIntosh monoblocks, and a Tributaries power manager when I visited the Clarus roombut I kidded him that the only non-Clarus cable in the system was the USB link from the laptop to the McIntosh MCD100.

RMAF 2011

Vivid—Luxman—On A Higher Note

John Atkinson Oct 15, 2011

"That's a familiar sightand a familiar sound." When I walked into On A Higher Note's large room on the Denver Tech Center Marriott's mezzanine floor, the speakers being demmed were the Vivid B1s that I review in the October issue. I loved the sound of the $14,990/pair B1s in my room and they were doing equally sterling duty at RMAF, driven by a Luxman M600A amplifier ($8500) and a modified Revox open-reel recorder. A 15ips tape of a cello, piano, and double bass playing what sounded like a tango by Astor Piazolla, recorded in LA's Disney Hall by Yarlung Records, had an ease to its sound that allowed the music to flow. The room had a touch too much bloom in the upper bassperhaps the Synergistic "magic bowl" you can see on the post on the wall behind the speakers was fatigued after a long day adjusting the room acoustics.

RMAF 2011

BSG Technologies

Stephen Mejias Oct 15, 2011

“In nature, sound has three elements,” explained BSG Technologies’ Larry Kay: “Amplitude, frequency, and phase.”

At a hi-fi show, there are many different types of demos. In some, there is music played casually, seemingly without much thought, selected either by the host or by an attendee; in others, music is carefully selected and introduced by your host, each track used to display certain characteristics of the system at hand; in others still, music is certainly played, but only after attendees are offered a detailed explanation of the gear in the room&#151we learn about the technologies employed and the work that went into creating the product&#151and we might even learn something about the art and science of listening. These last rooms are like demo-lectures, and they’re my favorite rooms. I feel like I’m in a classroom again, with one of my favorite professors.

RMAF 2011

Sony’s SS-AR1 loudspeakers

Stephen Mejias Oct 14, 2011

Similar to the system we enjoyed at the California Audio Show, here we heard the beautiful Sony SS-AR1 loudspeakers ($27,000/pair) with Pass Labs X600.5 power amplifiers and XP-20 preamplifier, Parasound Halo JC3 phono preamp, Clearaudio Concept turntable, and an EMM Labs XDS1 SACD player. Speaker cables were Kimber Kable's KS-3033, interconnects were Kimber's KS-1111, and AC cables were Kimber's PK-10 Gold.

The system sounded rhythmically nimble and certain with big, fleshy images, a rich midrange, and warm, full bass. Easy to listen to and easy to enjoy.

RMAF 2011

A Zu Party

Stephen Mejias Oct 14, 2011

Something strange and awesome was going on in the Zu Audio room. The lights were low, an evil but alluring sound was filling the room, and the company’s Sean Casey was crouched down in a corner, surrounded by vinyl.

RMAF 2011

Serious Listening

Stephen Mejias Oct 14, 2011

Here we see AudioStream’s Michael Lavorgna in serious listening mode. (We can’t seem to keep him away from vinyl.) The album is Edward Ka-Spel’s O Darkness! O Darkness!

RMAF 2011

RMAF 2011: Some Opening-Day Thoughts

Stephen Mejias Oct 14, 2011

The Rocky Mountain Audio Fest is held at the Denver Marriott Tech Center. On the show's opening day, the line of attendees stretched through the entire lobby, out the hotel's front entrance, and wrapped around the parking lot. It's a beautiful day for a hi-fi show.

1. This show is massive. I think John Atkinson and I are feeling a bit overwhelmed by the number of exhibitors. I’m not sure that we’ll be able to see and hear everything that is on display. A strategy: John will start in the Tower and I will start in the Atrium, and tomorrow, we’ll compare notes and examine what we have and have not achieved. Meanwhile, Michael Lavorgna will cover computer audio for AudioStream, and Tyll Hertsens will cover headphone gear for InnerFidelity.

Art Dudley Listening Turntable Reviews

Listening #106

Art Dudley Oct 14, 2011

In 2010, sales of motorcycles equipped with sidecars accounted for only 4% of total motorcycle sales in the US. But that was a significant increase over 2009, which was itself an increase over 2008. While numbers remain low overall, sales of sidecar motorcycles are going up at a decent rate, while sales of most other motorcycles are in the toilet.

Turntable Reviews Tonearm Reviews

VPI Classic 3 turntable & Classic-JMW tonearm

Michael Fremer Oct 14, 2011

Trends in turntable design shift back and forth over time, each "advance" turning out to be a mostly sideways move. Over its long history, VPI's founder and designer, Harry Weisfeld, has moved the analog goalposts back and forth as he's refined his thinking. His early turntables were mostly standard spring-suspension designs of normal size. By the time Weisfeld produced his fully tricked-out TNT model, which was originally designed to stably hold the heavy moving mass of Eminent Technology's ET2 air-bearing arm, he'd moved to a massive, oversized, sandwiched plinth with isolating feet at the corners. He first used springs and, later, air bladders originally designed to cushion a tractor-trailer's load, and which he'd found in a trucker's supply catalog. Via an O-ring, the TNT's outboard motor drove one of three pulleys that protruded from holes in the plinth, and attached to a T-shaped subchassis that, in turn, drove the other two pulleys via two additional O-rings.