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Durand and Denham

Composer and artist Joel Durand (left, who in his free time designs beautiful tonearms) and TTWeights’ Larry Denham flank the mightily impressive Black Onyx turntable ($15,000).

At one point during a demo, Denham banged the crap out of the Onyx’s center weight&#151while a record was playing!&#151and the turntable didn’t miss a beat. It was absolutely impervious to Denham’s attack. And Denham is a pretty big dude.

The high-mass platter uses five layers of decoupling, and each component is CNC-machined. Three speed options are selectable via a cool, industrial…

Kosmic Sounds

Kosmic’s Joe Pittman stands beside a Sota Millenia turntable equipped with a Kosmic tonearm and Magic Diamond cartridge, sitting atop a Kosmic equipment rack. Kosmic, a company that was new to me, manufacturers a tonearm, a music server, and equipment racks, which seemed like a strange product line. When I asked Pittman about it, he simply replied that all three areas are integral to the overall performance of any system. The Kosmic Server ($2295 with 500GB hybrid drive) stores approximately 1600 CDs in FLAC format, and provides FireWire and USB 2.0 output up to 32-bit/384kHz…

All-American Music with Genesis Advanced Technologies

It was a pleasure to meet with Genesis Advanced Technologies’ Carolyn Koh and Kosmic’s Joe Pittman in “one of the few rooms where everything is made in the USA.”

The system was made of a Sota Millenia turntable ($9500) equipped with a Kosmic tonearm ($3200) and Magic Diamond cartridge ($6500), Balanced Audio Technology (BAT) VK-P10SE phono stage with Super-Pak ($9495), BAT VK-D5SE CD player with Super-Pak ($9500), BAT REX linestage ($20,000), BAT VK-55SE monoblocks ($11,900/pair), a DIY Genesis music server with modified Weiss Minerva DAC, and cables, interconnects, and power…

Gamut's S5

I caught up with the always affable Lars Goller of Gamut who was very proud of the company’s new S Series speakers. Here we see Goller standing beside the S5 ($30,000/pair), which boasts a very attractive cabinet made of form-pressed solid wood over multi-layered Finnish Beech ply. Externally machined canals in the speaker’s side panels divide the speaker into segments to better control vibrations and minimize coloration, Goller explained. In addition, two large port openings of 5mm-thick solid machined aluminum are threaded directly into the speaker’s rear panel to minimize port…

Soundsmith Cartright

If the Soundsmith room had been a van, it would have been rocking. (Hee-haw.) Seriously, there was a party going on in here and Peter Ledermann was the master of ceremonies, cueing up one record while a second was playing. But before I could take a seat, I was mesmerized by this awesome-looking device, the Soundsmith Cartright ($899.95, due early 2011), which resembles some sort of old-school, psychedelic Electro-Harmonix stomp box, but promises to simplify cartridge setup.

The Cartright adjusts settings for vertical tracking force, anti-skating, azimuth, overhang, and stylus…

Soundsmith and DirectGrace

In addition to the Cartright cartridge setup tool, Soundsmith was showing the new EZ-Mount cartridge screws ($29.99, review to come from Michael Fremer), which allow for easy cartridge installation; Soundsmith’s new top-of-the-line Sussurro Paua moving-iron cartridge ($3499), inspired by Frank Schroder; the special edition, VPI-branded Zephyr high-output cartridge ($999), designed for use with VPI and other unipivot tonearms; and the neat, little “Intuitive” tool ($49.99), designed to make simple, precise adjustments of tracking force and azimuth to VPI tonearms!

The sound in here…

Awesome Gear from T+A

It was awesome to see the limited edition Dynaudio Sapphire, cloaked in a stunning clear blue piano lacquer over a veneer of bird’s eye maple. The sound was just as fine: cymbals and horns had a natural bite, without edge or glare, blooming and blooming and blooming into the room.

It was also the first time I’d seen or heard T+A’s impressive collection of V-Series tubed gear, all of which reminded me of the coolest toys for grown boys, looking somehow rugged and elegant: The D 10 CD/SACD player ($12,500), P 10 valve preamp ($12,500), G 10 turntable ($9750, with SME tonearm and…

Dynaudio and More T+A

Dynaudio’s Mike Manousselis pulled me into his room with the familiar sounds of the XX. On display here were T+A’s more affordable R-Series components, less flashy than the V-Series, but no less elegant: G1260 R turntable ($3250 with tonearm; $3600 with arm and cartridge; $4300 with built-in phono), PA1260 R integrated amplifier ($5000), CD1260 R CD player ($3800), and MP1260 R DAC streaming client ($4200, providing internet radio, two USB inputs, and wired or wireless streaming abilities).

Speakers here were also a treat: The Special Twenty-Five has been reissued in a limited-…

Analogue Productions and Sony

Acoustic Sounds’ Chad Kassem provided a wonderful demo of some of his fine Analogue Productions releases, including Jimmy Lee Robinson’s All My Life and Elvis’ 24 Karat Hits&#151all sounding absolutely seductive and enveloping with an extremely liquid and relaxed sound&#151through a system featuring a Clearaudio Concept turntable ($1400), which Kassem was particularly fond of&#151“for the price, this ‘table is hard to beat”&#151and Sony’s SS-AR1 loudspeakers, seen here.

The speakers are currently only available in Japan. Sony’s marketing director, Michael McCole,…

Audio Physic Celebrates 25 Years

Audio Physic is celebrating their 25th anniversary with the special edition Virgo 25 ($12,500/pair-$14,000/pair, depending on finish), “a miniature version” of the company’s top-of-the-line Cardeus. Partnered with the Virgo 25 at the time I visited was the Trigon CD II CD player ($4000), Trigon Dialog preamplifier ($9000), and Trigon Monolog monoblocks ($18,000/pair). Also on display was the Trigon Energy integrated amplifier ($5000). Supporting the gear was a Creaktiv Trend-Line 1-3 audio rack ($1300) and Creaktiv amp stands ($1000 each).

Trigon is a company based in Kassel,…