AXPONA 2022

More debuts awaited in Fidelis Distribution's second room, where Heretic Loudspeaker Company's handcrafted-in-Montreal A612 high-sensitivity loudspeaker (price TBD—no more than $10,000/pair, I was told) and Lab 12's handcrafted-in-Athens electronics sang with AVIDHIFI's Volvere turntable ($8000, below) equipped with a TA-3 tonearm ($650) and inexpensive (by audiophile standards) Grado Opus3 cartridge ($275). Through Lab 12 and Siltech cabling, the sax on "Trippin' Out," on an LP from Vanessa Fernandez, sounded fabulous, The energy of the track came through loud and clear. It was all I could do to stop myself from getting up and dancing. Without a doubt, this system delivered the most fun I'd had during my first two days at the show.

Perhaps due to the narrow size of the room, Matthias Goerne's baritone boomed and got a bit edgy when his voice opened. But when the beat got going on Fernandez's track, all that fell by the wayside.

The 88 lb. Heretic A612 is a two-way, ductless, coaxial monitor that includes a serial Linkwitz-Riley, second-order crossover network and features FAC 12-ply birch plywood construction. The 303 Heretic coaxial transducer delivers highs with a 1" coaxial compression driver and lows via a high-power, 12" low-frequency transducer. With a frequency response of 30Hz–22kHz –6dB—the company claims a typical room response of 28Hz–20kHz—the A612 boasts a sensitivity of 97dB/2.83V.m. Standard finishes are water-based acrylic black or Altec grey.

Lab 12 components included the pre1 class-A tube preamplifier ($2190), Suara 50Wpc KT150-equipped, class-A power amplifier ($4490), Melto2 remote-controlled tube phono preamp ($4490), DAC1 reference D/A processor ($3290), Gordian power distributor/conditioner ($2390), and Knack power cables.