Another Wow from Credo Audio Switzerland, EMM Labs, Meitner Audio, VPI

Credo Audio Switzerland's Cinema LTM loudspeakers ($199,995/pair) may have towered above all else, but the gear from EMM Labs and their lower priced Meitner Audio line, van den Hul, VPI Industries, and DS Audio displayed in another "give it all you've got" large room was nothing to scoff at. Though I've grown tired of the overblown sound on Gary Karr's LP, Adagio di Albinoni, I was awed by the midrange beauty of Sara Barreilles's voice on a 24/88.2 file of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road." The recorded sound of this live performance seemed uncannily real, and the soundstage was awesome.

"We roll our own chips," Amadeus Meitner said about the innards of the Ed Meitner-designed Meitner MA3 integrated converter ($10,500) that I reviewed in 2022 for Stereophile. "Ed does things that interest him," he said in reference to the DS-EQ1 optical equalizer ($12,500) that his father designed, and that together with the DS Audio Grand Master cartridge ($15,000), shared one of the two tonearms on a VPI Industries Avenger direct-drive turntable ($36,000, below).

Also in the system: the massive EMM Labs MTRX/2 monoblock amplifiers ($85,000/pair), DA2 D/A converter ($30,000), PRE Reference stereo preamplifier ($25,000) and NS1 streamer ($4500); Meitner Audio PRE stereo preamplifier ($7500) and DS-EQ2 ($5000); and van den Hul Black Crimson cartridge ($6000), Grail SE phono stage ($19,995) and 3T Rock interconnects. I'm sorry, but in my haste to take in as many rooms as possible on the last day of the show, I failed to note what was playing during my too brief visit.

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