CES 2016

Shipping in the second quarter of 2016, Meitner's extremely powerful MTRX2 1kW monoblock amplifiers (price around $80,000/pair), which output 600W into 8 ohms and 1000W into 4 ohms, may be the weaker siblings of their flagship MTRX predecessors, but they have their own proprietary topology to make them feel their equal. "Not only are the MTRX2 amplifiers ultra-fast and ultra-transparent, but they'll also output to 1 ohm," EMM Labs' Shahin Al Rashid explained. "That means they will handle any speaker." Add to that zero loop negative feedback.

In an all-Meitner system whose new DA2 stereo DAC ($25,000) and matching TX2 CD/SACD transport ($25,000) I left to Jon Iverson to cover, the MTRX2 allied with Kimber Kable Silver Select and Palladian cabling and Vienna Acoustics Klimt "The Music" loudspeakers to transmit an excellent sense of space on my SACD of Mahler Symphony 9. Warmth, however, was wanting.