RMAF 2010

Featured in Listen-Up's third room was a bevy of new gear from Canadian manufacturer Simaudio: the Moon 310D phono stage ($1799, which Michael Fremer falls in love with in our January 2011 issue), the Moon 300D D/A processor ($1600)—this handles digital data with up to 24-bits word length and 192kHz sample rate via both S/PDIF and USB and uses 32-bit Sabre DACs—Moon 350P preamp, Moon 400M monoblocks, and Moon CD3.3X CD player. (Apologies for not noting the prices of these components.) Analog was being played on a Sumiko RM10-1 turntable, and the speakers were Sonus Faber's Elipsas ($18,000/pair).

As with the room featuring the less-expensive Sonus Fabers, there was an enjoyable ease to the presentation, both from digital (a Bach keyboard concerto from Neville Marriner and the ASM ripped from LP at 192kHz and played on Chuck Zeilig's laptop) and from vinyl (that long-time Show favorite, Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Tin Pan Alley").