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Miguel Alvareaz of Point St. Lucie, Florida, is a defector for the cause. A self-confessed former marketing rep for Bose who always had a passion for audiophile products, he eventually left the company to develop the Tripoint Troy power product ($8000). Based on a new concept, the device uses passive filtration in the form of magnetism and layers of different materials (brass, copper, and proprietary products) to eliminate and reduce EMI and RFI. Rather than a line conditioner per se—one is in the works—the Troy is a grounding device to which you attach ground wires from the various…
Bel Canto's designer, John Stronczer, proudly showed off the the Minnesotan company's e.One s300 integrated amplifier ($2495), that was recently reviewed by Wes Phillips. A dual-mono design with a class-D output stage, it outputs 300Wpc into 4 ohms and 150Wpc into 8 ohms, the diminutive integrated amp features Bel Canto's single button control for inputs and volume, as well as a remote control.
Bel Canto's modest powerhouse is available in a number of different configurations, including moving-magnet phono stage input, S/PDIF-input DAC, or 24/96 USB digital audio converter. Mated…
I went into the Pass Labs room to check out the company's new amps. But what caught my eye was the SR-1 loudspeaker ($25,000/pair). SR-1 stands for "First Son of Rushmore," the Rushmore being Nelson Pass's original assault on the state of the speaker art. A conventional deign compared with the active quad-amplified Rushmore, the four-way SR-1 uses four top-line SEAS drive-units, including a 29mm Hexadym soft-dome tweeter,
With a system that included two XA100.5 monoblocks and Pass Lab's new phono stage, with a Basis turntable at the front end, the SR-1s produced a big, refined…
Although Mikey Fremer has received a pair for review, I haven't visited his Jersey crib yet to take a listen. So the system in Boulder's room at CES was my first chance to audition Wilson's new MAXX 3. I popped a data disc with some of my hi-rez 24-bit/88.2kHz files in the Boulder 1021 CD player, and a list of the WAV files appeared on the player's screen. The 1021 will play data CDs carrying FLAC, WAV, Vogg Orbis, and MP3 files, and as I found, will decode and play hi-rez files.
The masters of my recent Cantus recording While You Are Alive sounded open and spacious on the new…
The original Coltrane speaker from Swedish company Mrten Design got the thumbs-up from Michael Fremer when he reviewed it three years ago, so I was not surprised to hear good sound in importer EAR USA's room from the new Coltrane Soprano ($45,000/pair). The Soprano combines a diamond tweeter from Jantzen Audio said to have a 55kHz bandwidth, with two 7" ceramic-cone woofers from Accuton. Other than the 56mm-thick front baffle, the stylin' gracefully curved enclosure is fabricated from carbon-fiber laminate.
The rest of the system comprised an EAR 912 preamp ($11,000) and 70Wpc EAR…
I did not make it to CES this year, but my exhibitor badge did. Here's our mischievous web monkey, Jon Iverson, with my name held hostage around his neck.
Oh boy. I am in trouble now.
Do not trust this man!
8 DACs per channel and upsampling to provide a 2,8224MHz data rate with 26-bit resolution from a standard CD. Retail is $33,450 and availability will be March.
Wadia is also showing the new 571 CD transport at &7,950 and is also slated for a March ship date.
Here is Wadia's new 381 Integrated CD Player, which retails at $6,950 and offers the same performance of the company's 581se minus SACD playback.
The new player utilizes the DigiMaster 2.5 Up-sampling Algorithm and ClockLink jitter reduction system.
Wadia's iTransport was a big hit at last year's show, so they are back this year with a pile of new products.
Using the same form factor as the iTransport is the new Series 1 121 DAC/pre. Two versions will be available: $999 for the basic unit and $1,499 for the base unit plus a built-in headphone amp designed by Ray Samuals.
Coupled with the iTransport, this would be a compact way to integrate a music server, disc player or other sources. Both products sport USB, Toslink and Coax inputs as well as stereo balanced XLR and RCA outputs. Don't get too excited yet, however,…