LATEST ADDITIONS

Alma Music & Audio has recently gone bi-coastal, adding Alma East in Sterling, VA to its flagship Alma West store in San Diego. In one of their several rooms at the show, the dealership showcased Boenicke Audio's W8 SE loudspeaker in Walnut finish ($16,500/pair). I've always been intrigued by these unique solid-wood speakers, whose internal chambers are carved out by a CNC machine.

You can always count on the amazing Steven Norber to come up with something intriguing. In this case, it was the brand new Dhyana two-way quasi line-array loudspeaker ($19,500/pair). With a 30mm tweeter and four 152.4mm woofers, the speaker claims a frequency range of 28Hz–23kHz, a nominal impedance of 8 ohms, and a sensitivity of 88.5dB.

Tonian Labs was one of several smaller companies at T.H.E. Show that depend on direct sales and a few dealers to get their products to the public. I'm glad I encountered them again, because their Oriaco G6 loudspeaker ($4500/pair) united with a Denon 70Wpc integrated and Marantz CD player to deliver very clear and colorful sound.

When I bumped into long-time industry member Alan Kafton of Audio Excellence/The Cable Cooker, he urged to check out a new loudspeaker company, Songer Audio of Portland, OR, on the third floor. It seems I missed the company when its founder, former software engineer Ken Songer, premiered his speakers at last year's Pacific Audio Fest outside Seattle.

One could only be impressed with the amount of air delivered by a cramped set-up in which TAD standmounts stood so close to each other and everything else. The sound was notably warm with excellent bass.

Synergistic Research had the opportunity to display its magic in the first of five rooms sponsored by Scott Walker Audio. There were at least six new Synergistic Research products in the room: the Network Router UEF ($2995), UEF Ethernet and USB Performance Enhancers ($295), Master Fuses ($595 each), Galileo Active Ground Block MkII ($7995), Master Tuning Modules for use, I believe, with cables ($425/each), and, on static display, Active Ground Block SX ($2995). Add in at least Synergistic Research power conditioning products, headed by the Synergistic Research Galileo PowerCell SX ($27,995); six acoustic room treatment products; four racks and shelves, headed by the Synergistic Research Tranquility Rack ($24,995); another grounding product; and six different cables, the most expensive of which was the SRX Interconnect ($12,995, presumably for the pair). Add that all up, and you had quite the Synergistic Research lineup.

Ozan Turan and Dave Weintraub of High End by Oz may pretty consistently rotate components between shows, but one element remains constant: sonic excellence. At T.H.E. Show 2023, it was time for Lansche 7.2 loudspeakers ($110,000/pair in Macassar Ebony finish), Thrax Heros MkII class-A hybrid monoblocks ($47,000/pair) and other Thrax components, United Home Audio's R2R Ultima5 tape deck with outboard power supply ($38,000), and Albedo Silver Metamorphosis Signature monocrystal cabling to shine.