LATEST ADDITIONS

Hegel’s Anders Ertzeid stands proud with an Apple iPad and Hegel’s HD20 DAC ($2000). Ertzeid was using the iPad and AirPlay to wirelessly stream full-resolution files into the HD20.

“It’s a very stable connection,” Ertzeid said. “Even with all the competing networks here, the music hasn’t skipped at all.”

Musical Surroundings’ ARCMaster will help you install just about any tonearm in the world. Garth Leerer explained it to me, and, though I didn’t understand a single thing he said, he still somehow managed to make it sound simple.

Musical Surroundings’ Garth Leerer explained that the success of his company has hinged upon his ability to find and work with great designers. Often these relationships grow naturally over time and depend on the perfect alignment of certain circumstances, as was the case when Northern California designer Michael Yee needed someone to market his Phonomena phono stage: It was too inexpensive for one distributor, too expensive for another, but just right for Leerer; and, so, a long relationship was born.

In the case of the Fosgate Signature phono stage ($2500), Jim Fosgate had been tinkering with the design for nearly 30 years. After a break from analog, Fosgate wanted to get back into vinyl. He first became a customer of Musical Surroundings, and later approached Leerer with a design. The Fosgate Signature is an all-tube, MM/MC design at a real-world price, “a dream product” for Leerer.

Along with the Signature phono preamp and Fozgometer azimuth tool (reviewed by Michael Fremer in our May 2010 issue), Fosgate will design a line stage and power amplifier for Musical Surroundings, to be debuted at the 2011 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest.

A look at the complete Marantz/Boston Acoustics system. Toe-in was pretty extreme, helping to create a well-focused and stable soundstage. Listening to this system, it was easy to completely forget about the components and be carried away by the music.

Respected designer Ken Ishiwata stands beside the new top-of-the-line A-Series loudspeaker from Boston Acoustics. The speaker’s central drive units are completely suspended from the cabinet for isolation of all vibrations. The system we heard included the Marantz SA-7S1 SACD player, SC-7S2 preamplifier, MA-9S2 power amplifier, and Charismatech cables, all at least partially voiced and designed by Ishiwata for optimum synergy.

“We take a ‘whole system approach,’” Ishiwata said.

“The soundstage is very important,” he continued. “Other aspects of performance are matters of preference, but we focus on creating a very stable soundstage. Everything else comes from that.”

I noted outstanding overall scale with good soundstage height and easy, unforced dynamics. Music developed, blossomed, and blushed like a sunrise. This was a system I could have happily listened to for a long, long time.

The ground floor halls of the M.O.C. contained booths with both static and live demos to resemble something like CES’s Las Vegas Convention Center, but were only infinitely more pleasant, more manageable, better coordinated, and more attractive.

Octave Audio’s pretty RE 290 power amplifier (€6900) offers 90 or 130Wpc, depending on which power tubes are selected. A rear-panel switch makes the choice simple, and invites tube-swapping.