LATEST ADDITIONS

I caught up with the always affable Lars Goller of Gamut who was very proud of the company’s new S Series speakers. Here we see Goller standing beside the S5 ($30,000/pair), which boasts a very attractive cabinet made of form-pressed solid wood over multi-layered Finnish Beech ply. Externally machined canals in the speaker’s side panels divide the speaker into segments to better control vibrations and minimize coloration, Goller explained. In addition, two large port openings of 5mm-thick solid machined aluminum are threaded directly into the speaker’s rear panel to minimize port turbulence and noise.

It was a pleasure to meet with Genesis Advanced Technologies’ Carolyn Koh and Kosmic’s Joe Pittman in “one of the few rooms where everything is made in the USA.”

Kosmic’s Joe Pittman stands beside a Sota Millenia turntable equipped with a Kosmic tonearm and Magic Diamond cartridge, sitting atop a Kosmic equipment rack. Kosmic, a company that was new to me, manufacturers a tonearm, a music server, and equipment racks, which seemed like a strange product line. When I asked Pittman about it, he simply replied that all three areas are integral to the overall performance of any system. The Kosmic Server ($2295 with 500GB hybrid drive) stores approximately 1600 CDs in FLAC format, and provides FireWire and USB 2.0 output up to 32-bit/384kHz sampling rates and TosLink up to 24/96. Kosmic is located in Seattle, WA, and is also a dealer for Genesis loudspeakers.

I had been aware of TTWeight’s line of beautifully crafted, heavy-duty phono accessories&#151center weights and clamps, outer rings, and mats&#151and while I knew that TTWeight’s Larry Denham also designed turntables, it wasn’t until seeing them in person that I fully understood the extent to which Denham has gone in perfecting his designs. Turntables aren’t just a hobby or side project for Denham.

Clean and refreshing music and sound in the Audioengine room, from left: A5 active loudspeaker ($349/pair), P4 passive loudspeaker ($249/pair), N22 desktop amplifier ($199), and A2 active loudspeaker ($199; <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/budgetcomponents/1207ae/index.html">reviewed by Bob Reina</a>).

At <A HREF="http://blog.stereophile.com/rmaf2009/breakthrough_approach_to_audio_mea… 2009</A>, Nordost shook up quite a few audiophiles by announcing preliminary results of research that can measure and validate the positive effects after market cabling, supports, and power products. One year later, Nordost announced that the research, jointly conducted by Nordost's competitor, Vertex AQ of the UK in collaboration with military electronic-engineering consultant and sonar expert Gareth Humphries-Jones of North Wales, has taken a major step forward.

One of the many graphs Nordost and Vertex displayed at their research presentation was of time-domain error in a CD player, <I>ie</I>, the difference between the data on a disc and the output of the CD player. It ain't pretty. Other graphs showed reduction in error with the addition of cables, supports, and power products (specifically, Nordost's Quantum). All these graphs will be downloadable from the websites of Nordost and Vertex EQ within a matter of weeks.