RMAF 2012

Sound and Beauty from Profundo

Stephen Mejias  |  Oct 16, 2012

Sharing the Blackbird Audio room with Colleen Cardas Imports was Bob Clarke’s Profundo, out of Round Rock, Texas.

Clarke put together a distinct and absolutely gorgeous system: the beautifully proportioned, high-sensitivity Trenner & Friedl Pharoah loudspeakers ($12,500/pair); a groovy Funk Firm Vector turntable with FXR tonearm and Transfiguration Axia phono cartridge; Heed Audio Obelisk PRE linestage ($1900), PM monoblock power amplifiers ($4200/pair), and PX power supply ($1400); Clear cables from Cardas Audio; and Trellis equipment rack from Splintr Designs. The digital source was Heed’s Obelisk DT digital transport ($1900) and DA DAC ($1900).

Bob Clarke seems to have an eye for beauty as well as an ear for sound: I love the way his products look, and I also especially enjoyed the golden shine that came with the sound of trumpets and the sweet, sweet delicacy and touch that came with the sound of cymbals.

COMMENTS
DetroitVinylRob's picture
Submitted by DetroitVinylRob on October 17, 2012 - 6:08am

Nice to see the show having a little funk left in it.

Ok, I have to say it... nice rack!

Tell us a bit more about Trellis equipment rack from Splintr Designs. A simple search reveals nothing but gardening solutions. It looks like a smart, simple, quality design.

Happy Listener! ;^)>

BlackbirdAudio's picture
Submitted by BlackbirdAudio on October 17, 2012 - 8:58am

Thank you for the nice show coverage, Steven.  It's greatly appreciated!

As for the Trellis stands used in our room, Splintr Designs is a fairly new company, having shown a prototype stand at the Newport show earlier this year.  It is the brainchild of David Neilson and Matthew Tafoya and operates out of Southern California.

They were present for and provided some beautiful racks for our room at RMAF.

The framework they used was walnut and the inserts, with various pieces between them and the frame for isolation, can be mixed and matched to-order (just at the bottom-right of the above photo, you can just see an amp stand with a butcher block Maple insert)

Their website went up just in time for the show: http://splintrdesigns.com/

We're delighted to offer Splintr Designs products at our shop and I'm happy to answer any further questions.

Dan Muzquiz
Blackbird Audio/Gallery

DetroitVinylRob's picture
Submitted by DetroitVinylRob on October 19, 2012 - 6:57pm

Thank you Dan and cheers to Splintr Designs, I think they will fit in nicely.

Happy Listener! ;^)>

Hook's picture
Submitted by Hook on October 21, 2012 - 8:24am

Hi Stephen -

Thanks for all of the good RMAF coverage.  Heard lots of wonderful gear last weekend, but the Pharoh's were top of my list. 

Beautiful, rich tonality, but also fast and detailed.  Fine, articulate bass. Bob seemed to have done a better job than most of dealing with the crappy hotel room.  Setting them up along the long wall was a good idea.

I think I may have found my next set of speakers!

Hook

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