Munich 2019

More from Munich: Aries Cerat Symponia Loudspeakers, Cerat Erevus 5 Basshorn System, Achilleas Legend SET Amplifier, Impera II Reference Preamplifier

Herb Reichert  |  May 18, 2019

I quit smoking before cigarettes hit $5/pack. I sold my last car, a nickel green 1977 Mercedes 300D, for $500. But I have sold a lot of six-figure audio amplifiers, and clearly, the juicy audio good stuff—the super-exotic—blows everybody’s mind. 1893 Chateau Lafite Rothschild gear is out of the reach of the lumpen proletariat. But so what? It is still cool and spectacularly wild and a blast to listen to, which anyone can do at an audio show. Take the all-out Aries Cerat system Joshua Masongsong of Believe High Fidelity was showing at Munich 2019. Have you ever heard anything like this?

The main speakers were the Aries Cerat Symphonias, at $125,000/pair. They were accompanied by the Aries Cerat Erevus 5 passive basshorn system at $105,000/pair. The speakers were amplified by the Aries Achilleas Legend Series SET amplifier ($350,000) and Impera II Reference preamplifier ($35,000). Sources were equally exotic. For digital, there was a Pink Faun 2.6x streamer ($32,000) feeding the Kassandra II Sig DAC ($65,000). For analogue, there was a $59,000 Rui Borges turntable with a Thales Simplicty II arm ($9450) and a Top Wing Red Sparrow moving coil cartridge ($16,500). The phono stage was an Aries Cerat Talos Signature ($65,000). Cables were Signal Project’s Atlantis Series; including Hydra Series power strips, cabling totalled $70,000. Equipment support was provided by a Stacore 6 tier pneumatic system ($60,000).

That is a lot of zeros.

But did this Aries Cerat system sound better than my Schiit Ragnarock integrated and KEF LS50’s? Absolutely. How much better? I cannot quantify that, but this Believe High Fidelity system played much bigger, much louder, much more colorfully, much more layered with detail, much fresher, much airier in the top octaves, more real and less phony in the bottom octaves. Overall this system had so much Thor’s hammer blown-hemi race car power it scared me. When it finished sweeping me away like a flash flood, it picked me up and kissed me like Sophia Loren. My Schiit-KEF system definitely falls short when it comes to flash flooding and movie-star kissing.

COMMENTS
philipjohnwright's picture
Submitted by philipjohnwright on May 18, 2019 - 1:31pm

To your wordsmithery - my fingers are wistful.

Ortofan's picture
Submitted by Ortofan on May 18, 2019 - 3:58pm

... his products using stacked pairs of LS3/5a speakers.
Has HR ever experimented with using more than one pair of LS50 speakers?
$125,000 would buy nearly 100 pairs of LS50s - enough to create a veritable wall of sound.
$350,000 would buy a $h!tload of Schiit amps - or whatever else might be appropriate to drive an LS50 array.

TC's picture
Submitted by TC on May 18, 2019 - 6:59pm

While what you say is completely true, the Aries gear also looks like a million bucks.

Bogolu Haranath's picture
Submitted by Bogolu Haranath on May 19, 2019 - 11:48am

100 pairs of LS-50s could produce more than 120 db SPLs ........ Hard-rock and heavy-metal bands and fans would love that kind of SPLs :-) ..........

$1,000,000 could buy about 1,000 pairs of LSXs ........ no need for amps ........ 1,000 pairs of LSXs could produce well over 200 db SPLs ............ Blue whales would love that kind of SPLs :-) ..........

Ortofan's picture
Submitted by Ortofan on May 19, 2019 - 10:51am

... a greater advantage would be lower distortion at more typical listening levels.

Furthermore, if you prefer a dipole type speaker, then half (or some fraction) of the LS50 array could be aimed at the front wall, instead of toward the listener.

Or, you could take nine pairs and arrange them in a Bose 901 configuration, with one pair aimed at the listener and two sets of four speakers aimed at the front wall at two different angles.

Or, aim one pair upwards, toward the ceiling, as Castle did with some of its speakers.

Having multiple LS50s could be the equivalent of a LEGO set for audiophiles. The possibilities are endless.

Johan Coorg should try this out.

Bogolu Haranath's picture
Submitted by Bogolu Haranath on May 19, 2019 - 11:18am

Multiple LS-50s or LSXs could also be used for multiple surround sound and object based sound systems :-) .........

X