PAF 2022

A PNW store new to me and many, Reference Media of Bellingham, showed a system that produced very clean images with a fine depiction of space. Pat Metheny's "The Sound of Silence" on the LP, What's It All About, was notably liquid, flowing, and open. Complete with an all-encompassing soundstage, the listening experience was totally enjoyable, without reservation.

Store co-owner, Erik Wrolson, told me that Reference Media includes a showroom/soundroom, media room, and rentable 16-person theater room. I hope I've got that right. I scribbled those notes on Erik's business card when we ran into each other later on at the show.

Heading the show lineup were Egglestonworks Viginti AE loudspeakers ($42,795/pair). The speaker achieves a usable output of 20Hz–40kHz through its beryllium-dome tweeter, carbon-fiber midrange unit, and dual carbon-fiber 10" bass drivers. Electronics include the Boulder 1110 balanced stereo preamplifier ($22,000), Boulder 1161 150Wpc stereo amplifier (also $22,000), Boulder 1100 Series balanced phono preamplifier ($19,000), Naim NDX 2 DAC ($8799) and Naim Uniti Core music server ($3199). Cabling was Shunyata Ztron Cobra speaker cable; other cabling was not identified. The system's REL 212/SX subwoofer ($4999) was not in use during my visit.