LATEST ADDITIONS

The Give Band's singer/flute player, Caroline St. Louis, was last seen on this Show report wearing a <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/ssi2010/press_day/">blue wig</A> at the ticket counter. Wearing a wireless mike, she danced and sang to impressive effect.

I was also impressed by the sound of the $7000/pair Joseph Pulsar stand-mount that Stephen Mejias <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/ssi2010/joseph_audio_simon_and_garfunkel/">… about</A>. What was notable about the set-up was that, in order to tame the hotel room acoustic, Jeff had set-up the speakers, driven by Simaudio's new 175Wpc Moon 700i integrated amplifier via Cardas Clear cables, to fire across the room's diagonal. If you have problems getting an optimal transition between the mid-bass and upper bass in your room, you might want to try this set-up (significant other not objecting, of course).

SSI 2010 also marks the North American debut of the active-suspension, self-powered DSPeaker Servo loudspeaker ($3500/pair), designed and manufactured in Finland and distributed in the US by Simplifi Audio. Lead designer Toni Liitola explained that the use of Active Suspension Compliance Management works to tame acoustical and mechanical non-linearities of the driver/enclosure system, while DSP-based waveform shaping enables a “transient-perfect sound.” The Servo uses Seas drivers made to DSPeaker’s specifications; internal amplifiers are made in-house. In addition, the speaker’s built-in Anti-Mode room correction eliminates room resonance, allowing the speaker to be placed almost anywhere in a room. In support of his claims, Liitola was happy to share several waterfall plots and step-response graphs.

With the Joseph Audio Pulsar ($7000/pair), <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2009/josephs_pulsar/">introduced at the 2009 CES</a>, Jeff Joseph’s goal was to turn his top-of-the-line Pearl into “a convenient, single-serving size speaker with real bass slam.” The Pearl’s 1” tweeter is mated to a magnesium-done woofer made by Seas to Joseph’s specs. Joseph explained that the Pulsar is designed to radiate sound evenly over a very wide angle to avoid wave interference, and make for simple placement and good sound throughout the listening room.

Here's another view of Jeff Joseph's beautiful Pulsar loudspeaker ($7000/pair), finished in Pommele Sapele.

Hathor Acoustik takes its name from the Ancient Egyptian goddess said to have the ability to “cure humanity with her song,” explained designer Luc Allair (right). Salon Son & Image 2010 presents the debut of Hathor’s Reference loudspeaker ($20,000 CAN). Partnered with an elegant, all-Naim system, including CDX2 player, NAC 252 preamp, and NAP 250 amplifier, the Hathors produced a warm, inviting sound, marked by an especially wide and deep soundstage and fleshy, well-focused images.

Faithful readers of these show report blogs may recall that <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/ssi2009/">last year</A> I missed the Toronto&#150;Montreal train I was scheduled to take, and had to wait two hours for the next one. This year, I was determined that history was not going to repeat itself, and I ended up getting to the train station nearly an hour before the train's departure. Maybe next year I'll find a happy compromise. . .