CAS 2010

One of the high points of my time blogging the first Stereophile-sponsored Axpona Show in Jacksonville was hearing the Audience ClairAudient 16+16 loudspeakers and meeting John McDonald. This time, John went from extremely large to relatively small. Instead of the 16+16 or 8+8, he brought his smallest loudspeakers, the Audience ClairAudient 2+2 ($5000/pair), augmented by a prototype ClairAudient subwoofer ($5000).

Looking at their size and frequency response, and the small size of the room, I decided to take a listen to smaller-scaled music. First up was the Bobo Stenson Trio on ECM playing “Send in the Clowns.” The sound of the piano was absolutely gorgeous. Strangely, soprano Elly Ameling's voice was a little covered, but the midrange of the piano accompanying her was once again gorgeous. At higher volumes, the system overloaded the room, resulting in some grain and distortion; turned down just a notch, the sound was excellent.

Doing the honors, in addition to the loudspeakers, were Audience's prototype Wavepower class-D monoblocks ($7000 each), Wavemaster buffered passive preamp ($13,000), a highly modified Denon 3930 player, and Audience aR6-TS power conditioner ($5000), AV24 power cords and AV24e interconnects and speaker cables ($2200/6ft).

To demonstrate one of the Audience ClairAudient line's strong points, which creates a "sweet space rather than a sweet spot," John asked me to sit way against one of the sidewalls. The coherence of the soundstage image and the depth remained, with voice and piano floating in space. As impressive a phenomenon as the sound was lovely.