The LSA (Living Sounds Audio) Group's demo featured the LSA2 Statement ($5999/pair) speakers driven by their own LSA Standard tube hybrid integrated amp ($6200), the system set up along the wall in a…
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For big speakers, like the Legacy Whisper XD in the story below, the problem in setting up an effective demo in a show environment is that the room may be too small for the speaker. And then for speakers that are more modestly sized, if they're demonstrated in a big room, the speaker may not be able to play loud enough and the bass response may not be sufficiently powerful for the big space.
What comes next after Son and Image? Café, of course. SSI had the Nespresso line of espresso makers on demo, complete with free samples of espresso. Essential fuel for the weary show blogger!
If the Legacy Whisper was an example of a superb speaker ill-marched to the size of the room in which it was being demmed at SSI, the combination of Dynaudio's new DM37 tower ($2000/pair), driven by T+A's new E-Series Music Receiver ($4200) vis Ocos cable, showed what could be achieved from a more modest system, well set-up in a suitable room. The 160Wpc (into 4 ohms) Music Receiver includes an Apple-approved iPod dock, which takes the digital music data from the iPod and also has a USB port and three Toslink S/PDIF digital inputs. There is also a high-quality FM tuner and T+A’s Streaming…
I have a lot of respect for Dynaudio speakers, and have enjoyed listening to them at various shows, but I've never been as taken with one of their speakers as I was with the new Confidence C1 Mk.II ($8200/pair). With Naim amplification and digital source (including a Squeezebox Touch), the sound was simply exquisite, with highs that were revealing and yet not clinical. The legendary Esotar2 tweeter (shown in the photo) has apparently undergone some evolutionary development, and continues to maintain its status as the best dome tweeter in the world.
Hop hop hop! Who’s that on top of the DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/96 loudspeaker? It’s Richard the bunny, and he’s come to thank Stephen Mejias for staying behind and getting Stereophile’s June issue off to the printers while JA, RD, and I frittered away the hours in sunny Montreal, eating snails, duck livers, and pig-leg shavings. Richard thoroughly enjoyed the DeVore Orangutans. (More on that later.)
This looks like Jonathan Halpern, owner of the New York distribution firm Tone Imports, but it’s really the devil. Every time JA and I attempted to leave the Coup de Foudre room in which products by DeVore, Leben, EMT, Box Furniture, and Brinkmann were being demonstrated, the devil coaxed us to stay, just by playing one! more! song! We finally broke temptation’s chains and left to the strains of James Brown’s “Sex Machine”: JA and I had to literally back our way out of the room. Carefully.
Naim's line of Uniti network-enabled music servers . . . er, renderers . . . er, digital music players, can be controlled by a uPnP app runing on iPads and iPhones. Doug Graham's iPad doesn't seem disturbed by his frantic handwaving as it hung in mid-air! New at the Show was the UnitiQute player, which combines a preamplifier with two analog inputs, five 24-bit/192kHz-capable digital inputs, a USB port, and WiFi and Ethernet network connections.
Venerable British audio manufacturer, Naim, has an almost-equally-venerable new Canadian distributor, Plurison. Headed by the genial Daniel Jacques—on the right in the photo, with Doug Graham, Naim's International Export Manager on the left—Plurison's list of distributed brands includes Focal, Mordaunt-Short, MartinLogan, Pathos, YBA, Micromega, and a host of others. It must put Jacques in a quandary when he has to decide what product to take home to listen to on the weekend!
Hot news at SSI was that Naim will now be distributed in the US by The Sound Organisation, which also distributes…
Nordost's dem system comprised a Simaudio Moon 750D CD player, Simaudio Moon 700i integrated amplifier (favorably reviewed by Fred Kaplan in March), a Quantum system conditioner, Joseph Audio Pulsar stand-mounted speakers ($6999/pair), and, of course, Nordost cables.
The 2011 SSI was my first chance to see and hear the Limited Edition Les Paul Signature version of Thiel's well-received CS3.7 loudspeaker. The last complete design by the late Jim Thiel, the CS3.7 was favorably reviewed by Wes Phillips in December 2008. Wes concluded that he "loved, loved, loved the Thiel CS3.7!"
For the Les Paul Signature Edition, of which just 10 pairs are still available, Thiel finished the 15-ply enclosures in fiddle-back maple, then shipped them to Gibson's Custom Shop in Nashvlle, where they were painted in the guitar maker's sunburst finish, half in the Heritage…