RMAF 2010

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.”

The system was made of a Sota Millenia turntable ($9500) equipped with a Kosmic tonearm ($3200) and Magic Diamond cartridge ($6500), Balanced Audio Technology (BAT) VK-P10SE phono stage with Super-Pak ($9495), BAT VK-D5SE CD player with Super-Pak ($9500), BAT REX linestage ($20,000), BAT VK-55SE monoblocks ($11,900/pair), a DIY Genesis music server with modified Weiss Minerva DAC, and cables, interconnects, and power cords from Absolute Fidelity ($3000/2m pair, cables; $1800/.8m pair, interconnects; $1800/1m, AC). The source components sat on a Kosmic equipment stand ($1300/8ft shelf), while the amps were stabilized by Kosmic’s amp stands ($3200/pair). Speakers were Genesis’s 5.3 ($22,000/pair).

Also on display was a whole array of LP cleaning accessories—be still, my vinyl-cleaning heart!—from Nitty Gritty. Man, that Mini-Pro 2 ($1179) looks like a vinyl-cleaning dream with its auto-rotation and its two-sided cleaning and its solid oak cabinet!

We listened to some Stevie Ray Vaughan, who sounded appropriately doomy and urgent, with sweet, sweet guitar tones and very fine attacks and decays.