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California manufacturer Channel Islands Audio brought two new products to the show: the $895 PLC•1 passive preamp with remote and the $4,500/pr D•400 class-D power amps. Also in the room were the Von Schweikert Audio VR-5SE speakers ($18-22k depending on finish). Sound in the modest hotel room was surprisingly spacious and well-balanced. Left to right in the photo: Albert Von Schweikert, CIA's Dusty Vawter and Greg Schug.
Close up of the PLC•1 preamp (top) and one of the D•400 monoblocks.
Stephen Mejias and John Atkinson take a few minutes in the hall to catch up on the day's events. That's Telarc's Amanda Sweet in the background.
Wasn't she just in the background of John and Stephen's picture? We posed her next to the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet's Spin and she really lit up. It's an impressive sounding SACD—and the group is playing at HE2006 tomorrow. Did I mention the concert was free?
John Atkinson and Jonathan Scull handicap this year's F1 season. You didn't think they were this animated about audio, did you?
Stereophile's music editor Robert Baird, caught in the middle of his Garrison Keillor impersonation.
No, that's not a hearing aid growing out of Michael Fremer's pinna—he's the official HE2006 spokesperson, so he has to keep his phone on 24/7. HE says he hasn't heard any truly balanced stereo soundstaging yet, for some reason.
Onkyo teamed up with guitar manufacturer Takemine to produce a loudspeaker that sings like a musical instrument. Takemine's acoustic voicing technology, combined with Onkyo's innovation in driver design, made our LAGQ Spin sound vibrantly alive.
Onkyo says the D-TK10's ring-drive tweeter produces flat frequency response out to 100kHz and its AeroAcoustic Drive port duct gives the woofer unusual control for a 10cm driver. Onkyo also credits the A-OMF diaphragm for a significant amount of that bass control, too.
Price tbd.
Onkyo held a press conference that really made us smile. It was all about stereo.
The $699.99 A-9555 employs Onkyo's vector linear technology to correct the high distortion that plagues most PWM designs. VL technology modulates the signal with an integration circuit rather than a comparator, which, Onkyo says,"cancels" the positive and negative pulses of transient distortion. Onkyo claims this effectively smoothes the analog modulation and "removes" the error.
The A-9555 puts out 100Wpc into an 8 ohm load and 200Wpc into 4 ohms.
And did we mention that it has a phono…