With all the new, well-kept hair on his head, Ayre's Steve Silberman was almost unrecognizable. Here we see him striking a dashing pose. Married life must be treating him well. Steve was especially excited about Ayre's joint venture with DPS. We first reported on the DPS Ayre turntable from…
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In my opinion, few rooms at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest could compete with the sound produced in the Ayre Acoustics/Vandersteen Audio suite. To me, the music created by this combination just sounded right. It was effortless, involving, and realistic without being overly etched or bright.
The more I hear Vandersteen Audio's loudspeakers, the more I find myself admiring their relaxed, controlled, natural sound. Richard Vandersteen, the fighter pilot featured in a recent banner ad on this website, was happy to present his Quattro Signature Mk.2 ($11,700/pair). It utilizes a 6.5" mid-bass driver derived from the Vandersteen Model 5A and sounded exquisite driven by Ayre amplification.
Talk about effortless. Another room which I thought offered superb sound was occupied by Moscode, Von Schweikert, Esoteric, Placette, PS Audio, and Cardas. I think I heard the most beautiful music of all that reproduced at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in this very room. I don't even know what was playing, but what this system excelled at was communicating the all-important space between the notes.
The speakers were Von Schweikert's VR-5 Anniversary Edition ($28,000/pair); disc player was the Esoteric DV-50S; cables were Cardas Golden Reference; at the helm was the Placette…
The newest iteration of the Moscode hybrid power amp ($6495) retains the hefty aluminum faceplate which opens forward for easy access to the tubes.
Do you know about Oswald Mill Audio? Check out the website; it's fascinating.
Truth is: I'm not really into exotic loudspeakers.
I like my loudspeakers to look like loudspeakers. To me, a simple wood box is beautiful. But I was more than impressed by the extraordinary Oswald Mill Audio AC1. Completely hand-built out of solid Pennsylvania ash, it takes about a month to complete a single pair of AC1s. Each speaker uses a single 15" Alnico paper-cone woofer and a vintage compression driver for the midrange. Due to the finite quantity of the specific late '40s to early…
More beautiful woodwork was found in the Daedalus Audio suite. The Ulysses ($10,950/pair; add $500 for matching plinths) is Daedalus Audio's top-of-the-line speaker. It uses a 1" Eton dome tweeter, two 5" custom-modified Fostex midrange units, and two 8" proprietary woofers, and has a rated sensitivity of 97dB.
All Daedalus speakers are hand-built using solid North American hardwoods and boast hand-rubbed oli-varnish finishes.
Designer Lou Hinkley is a guitarist who may be better known for his acoustic guitar amps. His work in that arena led him to hi-fi. He told me a…
I didn't see any mountains, but I did get to see lots of smiling faces. I hope you're enjoying our coverage from the Rocky Mountain Audio fest because it's really kicking ass over here.
Another thing that caught my eye in the Daedalus Audio room was this nifty, little wood case for the Logitech Squeezebox. Daedalus' Lou Hinkley told me that he had done it as a one-off project, but because so many people seem interested in it, he may decide to build more. The attractive wood case provides beneficial EMI shielding, Hinkley said.
Allen Perkins and Immedia put together another great-sounding room.
Ah, the Spiral Groove SG1 turntable. Look at it. You love it. But it costs $25,000. Ouch. Oh, but you love it.
The Spiral Groove SG1 turntable looks totally bad-ass and has a removable armboard for easy swapping of tonearms. It made sweet, sweet music with the Lehmannaudio Black Cube Decade phono preamp ($2399; Michael Fremer's review will appear in our December 2008 issue), Spiral Groove's own Equinox series amplification (price TBA), and Sonics by Joachim Gerhard Amerigo loudspeakers in a handsome…
Joachim Gerhard kneels beside his very attractive Amerigo loudspeaker ($5500/pair). The Amerigo is a 3-way bass reflex design with a 0.8" dome ring radiator tweeter and proprietary 6" midrange and 8" bass drivers. Gerhard uses expensive birch plywood because he feels it sounds better than MDF.