SSI 2009

I know it's only the first day and I've hardly listened to any music, but my Best Music of Show Award goes to the Tone Imports/DeVore Fidelity/Box Furniture Co./Clearaudio room. I doubt there'll be any other suite at SSI where you can hear Q-Tip's The Renaissance followed by some radically bad-ass, virtuoso tabla.

Anthony Abbate builds the cabinets for DeVore Fidelity loudspeakers and also has a range of handsome equipment racks and isolation platforms. Here we see one of Anthony's racks proudly supporting the Leben RS 30EQ phono preamp, the beautifully gold-knobbed and green-trimmed Leben CS600 integrated amp ($5500), and Clearaudio Champion Wood (hee hee).

Um, the Champion Wood was a big hit.

The loudspeakers are the soulful DeVore Gibbon Nines.