Gemme Audio Soprano
Robert Gaboury stands with his little Gemme Audio Soprano.
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Gemme Audio Phenix
The Sashas of <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/ssi2009/obad_imports/">Obad Imports</a> suggested that I check out the Gemme Audio room, where a Neodio amplifier had been replaced by a prototype KingRex 50W Tripath amplifier. Gemme Audio's Robert Gaboury had his special Phenix Green Gem system ($37,000 CAN) on display, along with a Neodio CD player, and Blueberry Hill Audio cables.
The Stereophile Debate...
...was how SSI organizer Michel Plante had billed our "Ask the Editors" session, and (from left to right), Stephen Mejias, Robert Deutsch, and Art Dudley joined me in an animated discussion. Topics covered included the vinyl revivial, whether there is still a role for paper magazines in an Internet world, how does someone become a reviewer, and will Blu-ray be a viable medium for high-quality music.
Editors in Action
<I>Stereophile</I>'s star blogger Stephen Mejias hold forth at the debate on why he is in love with vinyl, while Robert Deutsch (center) and Art Dudley (right) wait to chime in with their opinions.
The Real Thing
An Audio Show wouldn't be an Audio Show without live music, to allow Showgoers to recalibrate their ears. The 2009 SSI featured two concerts, one by jazz pianist and singer Anne Bisson, the other by the Michel Donato Trio, seen here, with Donato on double bass, <A HREF="http://forum.stereophile.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1982">Jon Gearey</A> on guitar, and Marin Nasturica on accordion. Both acts have audiophile sound-quality CDs available from Montreal's Fidelio Audio, and other news from SSI was that these recordings are now available as 24-bit, 96kHz files.
Monitor Audio Platinum 200
<I>Stereophile</I> readers often wonder about how products are chosen for review, and, as I said at the SSI "Ask the Editors" panel discussion, the Monitor Audio Platinum 200 provides a case in point.
The Battery-Powered Veloces
i saw a familiar face when I went into the Veloce room, as Mark Conti, who designed the unusual Impact speakers from a few years back, is now involved in this line of battery-powered amplification. My eyes were attracted by the Veloce Platino LFT-1 linestage in the photo ($12,500), which will run for 70 hours before needing recharging, but driving the Marten speakers in the room via Purist cables was a pair of battery-power monoblocks ($12,000/pair). Battery power? Yes, the input stage, based on a 6922 tube, is transformer-coupled to a high-efficiency class-D output stage based on the Hypex module designed by famed Dutch engineer Bruno Putzys. A charge will last 40–80 hours depending on the speaker's load impedance, Mark told me.
Sennheiser 800
Like many <I>Stereophile</I> readers, I read with great interest, and a certain amount of incredulity, Jason Victor Serinus's rather gushing <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2009/worlds_finest_headphones">CES report</A> on the Sennheiser HD800 headphones. Now, I have a lot of respect for JVS's opinions—we share an appreciation of opera and other vocal music, and we're both great fans of Fritz Wunderlich—but, reading his report, part of me was intrigued and another part was thinking "Come on, Jason, these are just headphones, what's the big deal?"
That's the Champion Wood
Stephen Mejias <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/ssi2009/best_music_of_show/">reported a couple of days ago</A> on the excellent sound being made in the room featuring DeVore Fidelity's Gibbon Nine speakers, driven by a Leben integrated amplifier. I was equally impressed when I auditioned a Curtis Mayfield live album in this all-analog room, played on the Clearaudio Champion Wood turntable fitted with a Clearaudio Unify arm with a carbon-fiber armtube and an EMT JSD5 MC phono vcartidge.
The First Spike
Component supports take a variety of forms: squishy, rubbery things; hard, pointed things; ball bearings (loose or constrained); air or liquid bladders, etc. The Spike component supports, imported by Divergent Technologies, were a new one for me: they use magnetic levitation. Now, I'm familiar with platforms using this principle, but these are individual component feet, each with opposed magnetic components. A box of these "Spikes" contains four such feet, and the price for the total is CN$200. I was surprised that magnets could be made strong enough in this small size to be able to support equipment of substantial weight—hich they apparently can.