Part of my response may be due to the fact that Casa Bellecci-Serinus is graced with a similar pair of VTL 450 monoblocks ($15,000/pair). But in this room, the VTLs were equipped, not with the KT-88s I use, but with Svetlana C 6550s that were delivering beautifully controlled bass, copious color, and extended highs. That, of…
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I literally breathed a sigh of relief when I entered this room. Not that anything was wrong with the exceptional sound of the vast majority of rooms I visited. But of all the systems I auditioned, this one felt most like a safe haven. It was like coming home.
Headroom's Tyll Hertsens and Ivy Scull. Tyll is the president and CEO, and Ivy is the VP of sales and marketing. These two know headphones and they know headphone amplifiers and they know which headphones to use with which headphone amplifiers. Beyond all that, they're really nice people to be around.
Right now they're wearing the Denon AH-D5000 headphones ($699.99). I tried them on, too. They are comfortable, attractive, and offer an invitingly warm, yet detailed sound.
But I think Tyll and Ivy were most excited about the newest Denons, the AH-D7000 ($999.99). I…
"But what I really want you to listen to is this."
Headroom's Tyll Hertsens directed my attention toward a small, attractive desktop system: Harbeth HL-P3ES-2 loudspeakers; heavy-duty, adjustable Headroom speaker stands; Headroom 50Wpc Desktop bi-amp pair; cables and interconnects and computer.
The system is designed for extreme near-field listening. Seriously up close and personal. I sat in the seat and slid in close, making as though I was at work on the keyboard. Again, I selected the Pinback track.
Superb sound. With solid stereo imaging. And intense…
See this little guy? It's the Gradient Helsinki ($8000/pair). I'm a big fan of this weird-ass speaker. Rather than placing its drive-units within a cabinet, the drive-units are laid bare, free for the world to see, mounted onto the speaker's narrow body. Why? Free love. Free love! Cabinet resonances are eliminated. The Helsinki's dipole-radiation woofer projects sound from side to side, canceling out top-to-bottom sound waves and minimizing deleterious room reflections.
That's the idea, at least. I haven't actually heard the thing. I just like the concept. I mean, look at…
Standing beside my friend, the Gradient Helsinki, is the Harbeth M40.1 ($12,995/pair), recently reviewed by Art Dudley. It's actually larger than it appears in this photo. I love its old-school wide-baffle design.
And here is Walter Swanbon of Fidelis AV, importer for Harbeth and Gradient loudspeakers. Here you can get a better sense of the size of the M40.1 loudspeakers. To Walter's left is the newest member of the Gradient family, the Laura ($3995/pair). Intended for use in conjunction with the Helsinki or as a stereo pair, the Laura employs a coaxial drive unit and is designed to be positioned in close proximity to the front wall of your listening room. It's pretty, too.
Is this not the coolest-looking preamp you've ever seen in your life?
No?!
Are you kidding me? The DNM 3D-6 preamp ($13,995 with power supply) is cased in smoked acrylic and it shimmers and it glows. Who cares what it sounds like? How do you not just want this thing? To be in its presence is to want it. Ask Art Dudley.
Seriously, it's almost as if I haven't listened to any music at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. I just walk from room to room, running into people in the halls. These two weren't even exhibiting. They were simply here to have a little fun.
"Hey, Stephen! How are you?"
"Good! Just feeling a little worn out."
"Would it help if I offered you a scotch?"
Music Hall's Leland Leard (l) and Roy Hall, two of the happiest drunks in hi-fi.
I’ve been off the past several months, writing a book. It’s finished; I’m back. Consider this a catch-up column, touching on some of the new jazz CDs that have roused me the most since summer.
PAUL BLEY, ABOUT TIME (Justin Time). Paul Bley is one of the melodic avant-gardists who emerged in the mid-to-late ‘50s, searching for a way out of be-bop’s harmonic maze in the wake of Charlie Parker (others included Ornette Coleman, Charlie Haden, Charles Mingus, and George Russell), and Bley—who’s played piano with all of them—may possess the subtlest charms. His solo albums are gems, and this,…
Physicist Jack Bybee of Bybee Technologies has now licensed his quantum purification nanocarbon technology to David Caplan's new company, Bybee Wire. Distributed by Laufer Teknik, the new Bybee Wire cables and power purifier include Bybee devices that clean up quantum mechanical noise at the sub-atomic level.
To these ears, the Bybee products made the happiest sound in the Tweek Geek room. There, Analysis Audio Omega speakers ($22,000/pair), which actually needed more room to breathe than the room allowed, Modwright SWL 9.0 preamp ($2500), Spectron Musician 3 Mk.II monoblock…