From the film’s dedicated web site:
Growing up, Thresher and…
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In support of National Autism Awareness Month, McIntosh Laboratory and songwriter/producer J. Ralph have come together to create a spectacular new album, the original motion picture soundtrack to Academy Award winning director Gerardine Wurzburg’s Wretches & Jabberers. The feature-length documentary, in theaters now, follows the paths of two men with autism, Larry Bissonnette and Tracy Thresher, as they travel around the world determined to increase autism awareness and refine our ideas of intelligence.
My reputation preceded me: Everywhere I went, people who knew me stopped and asked, “Have you heard the new Lowther yet?” The speaker in question was actually a Lowther-alike from the German firm Voxativ, named the Ampeggio ($29,750/pair), and as I told everyone who asked—unsmugly, I hope—I’ve had a loaner pair in my house since mid-March.
But I’ll tell you this much: The Ampeggios sounded amazing at the show—open, dynamic, organic, detailed, and altogether musical—driven by Don Garber’s Fi WE421A single-ended triode amplifier ($3275) and Fi full-function preamp ($8200). Gideon Schwartz…
A few years ago, back when Salon Son & Image was called Festival Son & Image, Frch manufacturer Cabasse demonstrated their flagship La Sphère speaker system—which is still in the line, and currently sells for $168,565/system. It was most impressive sonically, and look was certainly unique, but with a tax-in price that's close to $200k, this is not a speaker that sells in large numbers. But lovers of the Cabasse sound can rejoice: for less than the Quebec provincial sales tax and Canadian federal Goods and Services tax on La Sphère ($22,756), you can get the Cabasse Artis Riga ($11,805…
ProAc is an English loudspeaker manufacturer that doesn't change models willy-nilly: if it works well and people buy it, then why change it? And if change comes, it should be purely evolutionary, perhaps a refinement of the crossover, or drive units replaced by improved versions of the same models.
So, for ProAc, replacing the popular Response D38 with the D40 ($12,000/pair) represents change that is near-revolutionary. Rather than the polypropylene bass/midrange drivers used in the D38, the D40 uses drivers with carbon-fiber cones, very light but rigid. The tweeter is now a ribbon rather…
The title "Ask the Editors" suggests one-way communication: people in the audience ask questions, and, guru-like, Stereophile writers answer these questions. In fact, communication at these events goes in both directions. For example, at the 2011 "Ask the Editors" session on Saturday, one of the attendees mentioned that he was really impressed with the demo of a speaker made by Live Audio, a company based in Quebec.
I made a point of visiting this room after the session, and was similarly impressed. The speaker ($6800/pair, no model number in the printed literature that I could find) uses…
John Atkinson (right), Art Dudley (center), and I had a good time at Stereophile's "Ask the Editors" session on Saturday afternoon, and, judging by the response, so did the people who asked the questions. The questions ranged from the general/philosophical, like whether it makes sense to use the "absolute sound" of unamplified music as the only reference in evaluating audio components, and the specific/technical, like the advantages/disadvantages of USB connections for high-performance audio.
As at previous Montreal Shows, parts and drive-unit distributor Solen Électronique had a room to show off their gear to DIY enthusiasts. But even anachrophile Art Dudley was puzzled by the center of this whizzer-cone fitted drive-unit sitting in his hand.
This time it's Jacques Riendeau's hand on show, showing off the one-piece aluminum body for the new Oracle MC phono cartridge.
The Oracle tonearm, shown here in Art Dudley's photograph, starts life as a ProJekt arm, to which is adding additional damping.
Hop hop hop! Who is Richard the bunny visiting today? It’s the Oracle Audio Technologies room, where veteran designer Jacques Riendeau introduced a relatively affordable new turntable called the Paris. Available in a variety of configurations—and colors—the fully-loaded version of the Oracle Paris offers an acrylic-and-aluminum platter (plus Delrin record clamp), a sophisticated suspension system, a new Oracle-designed carbon-fiber tonearm, and an Oracle MC cartridge—all for $3150 without the cartridge or $5000 with. I was impressed with the Paris samples on display, and Jacques Riendeau has…