T.H.E. Show 2019

By the time I reached the smallest of the three large rooms I dared visit on the 2nd floor, I was hip to the havoc their porous air walls were wreaking on the sound. So, when the combined output of four familiar components—YG Hailey 2.2 Speakers ($47,900/pair), Audio Research Ref 10 Line Stage ($33,000), MSB Select II DAC ($105,000 as shown), and Kubala-Sosna Realization / Sensation cabling—was over-saturating the space and spreading like crazy, I decided emergency intervention was called for. I asked, “Could you please turn it down?”

Boy, did Cassandra Wilson’s “Strange Fruit” sound better after that. Only then could I appreciate this system’s compelling three-dimensionality and, on David Oistrakh’s recording of Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, sweetness. Who knows how this system might have sounded in a less hostile acoustic?

Also heard in this room from Alma Music and Audio: Luxman's M-900u Amplifier ($15,000), the Innuos Statement Music Server ($14,400), and the GigaWatt PC-4 Power Conditioner ($10,000).