RMAF 2009

First introduced at RMAF 2008, where their ability to fill a HUGE (and I do mean HUGE) conference room in the Hyatt with a full Mahler orchestra blew everyone away, the Kaiser Kawero speakers ($55,000/pair), sound better than ever. And for good reason. Newly revised, and slated for import into the US, the speakers boast the marvelous, some would say incomparable Raal 7020XR double-ribbon tweeter. With 14 sq. cm of area, this tweeter seems to have no boundaries. The cabinet is of so-called bulletproof tankwood, and the special tuning feet contain more than their fair share of ebony.

The system's source was a Windows Vista-equipped PC running XX HighEnd software ($100). This software shuts off every other service in Vista, essential making it into a memory player. Thanks to the Weiss Vesta ($4200), which converts FireWire to S/PDIF; German-made Trinity DAC ($40,000), which uses 24 DACs per channel; the Absolare Pure preamp ($23,000), machined from a single block of aluminum and equipped with Mundorf caps and guaranteed to give top-of-the-line preamps a run for the money, and heavily modified tube amps.

This entire system was wired with Kerem Kücükasian's superb Echole cabling. That includes within the speakers and other components as well as in between. The cables' distinctive shiny metal capsule contributes extra resonance control. Kücükasian is the tall one in the photo, Rainer Weber the shortie (like me), and Daniel Weiss somewhere in between.

This system has a beautiful, extremely open sound. Not only did it lack even a hint of hardness or grain, it also rendered orchestral cymbals and triangles better than any other system I've heard in the past few years. The presentation was extremely fast and effortless, the sound beautiful to the extreme. I put on the first track from mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato's new Rossini recital, and sat transfixed. Brava to the mezzo, and bravo to the components.