AXPONA 2013

In the second room sponsored by Arnold Martinez' newly opened Tweak Studio (located in Chicago's Hyatt Downtown) and Colleen Cardas Imports, a SOTA turntable, curiously unidentified on the room's equipment list, and unidentified cartridge and tonearm, were making lovely sound with three products from PureAudio. Designed by Ross Stevens and Gary Morrison, formerly of Plinius, the redundantly titled PureAudio dual-mono vinyl phono preamplifier ($4500) joined PureAudio's dual-mono Control preamplifier ($9500) and Reference 65Wpc class-A monoblock amplifiers ($15,500) to drive My Audio Design 1920S loudspeakers ($3800/pair).

A look at the photo reveals that WyWires also got short shrift on the equipment list. Not auditioned were the larger loudspeakers, whose mouthful of a name—My Audio Design Duke Royal Limited—must have something to do with the price ($48,000/pair). Regardless, LPs sounded very mellow on this system, with the midrange dominating the presentation.