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Excited About New Music: Wilson Audio, D’Agostino, ASC, dCS, Transparent Audio

When the hell did Wilson Audio’s Peter McGrath become so hip? Has the old dude been subscribing to The Wire, hanging out in Greenpoint, going to noise-rock shows in abandoned warehouses?

McGrath used a system comprising Wilson Audio Sasha loudspeakers, gorgeous D’Agostino Momentum monoblock amplifiers, Sooloos Control 15, dCS Debussy DAC, Transparent Audio cables, and ASC Tube Traps to demo music from Pan Sonic to James Blake to Nicolas Jaar.

Nicolas Jaar? Peter McGrath? What the hell? Where am I?

First the room: It was small. Very small. I almost didn’t even see it…

That VooDoo That You Do: VooDoo Cable

The fellows in the VooDoo Cable room were playing Joni Mitchell’s Travelogue, arranged and conducted by Vince Mendoza.

The system featured the Belles Reference 150A power amplifier, ModWright 36.5 preamp with dual-mono power supply, Sony XA-5400ES SACD player with ModWright Truth modifications, and PS Audio P600 multi-wave AC power regenerator. The speakers were VooDoo’s own, a prototype, which should be available in about a year. And the cables, of course, were all VooDoo: Stradivarius Cremona interconnects with high-purity copper and silver conductors ($1500/1m pair, RCA), Stradivarius…

Smooth and Forgiving: Neko Audio, Chapman Audio Systems, Cary Audio, Parasound, MIT Cables

I’d never heard of Chapman Loudspeakers, but they’ve been around for 40 years, designing and manufacturing a range of compression-line floorstanders, right here in the USA, on Vashon Island, Washington. The company’s T-8 ($8995/pair) uses a new Scan-Speak tweeter, revised Scan-Speak side-firing woofer, and has a sand-dampened internal chamber.

Chapman’s Jesse Jones explained that they wanted the tweeter to be smoother and more forgiving to more types of music while retaining the music’s essential energy.

The system included Cary Audio’s CD 306 SACD player, Cary’s SLP 05…

Indie Album Unexpectedly Embraced by the Audiophiles

There are other examples: Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago, Iron & Wine’s Our Endless Numbered Days, Feist’s Let it Die, Fleet Foxes’ self-titled debut, and the XX’s XX come to mind. All of these albums were darlings of the indie pop scene and embraced by audiophiles. (What the?)

This year’s award for “Indie Album Unexpectedly Embraced by the Audiophiles” might just go to James Blake’s dreamy, self-titled debut. I’ve heard “Wilhelms Scream,” the second track from that album, in at least five exhibitors’ rooms at the California Audio Show.

I guess we like the way it…

Magico, Spectral, Audio Research, MIT, Tim Marutani Consulting, Bill Schnee, Blue Coast Records: Awesome!

Though they were also seen at the Munich Show, Magico’s Q1 monitors ($24,950/pair) are making their US debut here at the California Audio Show. The speaker incorporates much of the technology and design philosophy used in Magico’s Q5, reviewed by Mikey Fremer, but puts it in a smaller package. Like the Q5 and Q3, the Q1 is a sealed-box design with extensive internal bracing.

Magico’s Alon Wolf explained that he strives to create a speaker which highlights no single aspect of the presentation, but instead offers a strong, top-to-bottom coherence. I asked him about the differences between…

KCSM Jazz 91.1

From left: Barbara Lamb Hall, Melanie Berzon, and Sybil Bolivar of San Mateo’s listener-supported KCSM, 91.1FM. Not only is KCSM one of Sam Tellig’s favorite spots on the FM dial, it’s one of the last all-jazz stations in the world.

Because so many audiophiles in the Bay Area are also jazz fans, KCSM and California Audio Show organizer Constantine Soo figured the show would be a great way for KCSM to meet and greet their listeners. The vibe in their hospitality suite was wonderful.

KCSM broadcasts 24 hours a day and has about 250,000 weekly listeners. Those outside the Bay Area…

MBL: Space is the Place

Too often I’m more impressed by a system’s high price than by its high performance. But, in the case of this MBL system, the $260,000 price tag seemed completely understandable. I’m also fascinated by how a system’s sound can be transported from room to room, show to show, across oceans and states. The MBL system I heard at the California Audio Show sounded a lot like the MBL system I heard at the Munich High End Show&#151a good thing, indeed.

MBL’s Jeremy Bryan played a series of demo tracks that displayed the system’s many strengths: speed; clarity; detail; well-focused images on a…

Music Lovers and Musical Surroundings, Or: 5 Things About 4pm on Saturday

1. I had never seen speakers spread so far apart.
2. I had never seen a room that could make the Wilson Audio MAXX Series 3 loudspeakers look small.
3. By 4pm on Saturday afternoon, which is when I made it to this room, just about everyone at the California Audio Show was in a very loose mood (and getting looser).
4. The source was a Clearaudio Innovation Wood (ha, he said “Wood”) turntable with a Graham Phantom II Supreme tonearm and Benz Micro LP S-MR cartridge. The phono stage was the all-tube Aesthetix 10 Eclipse, the amplification was from Spectral, and the cables were from…

Stunning Sound from Music Lovers and Musical Surroundings

In the much smaller Music Lovers/Musical Surroundings room, we heard a sound very different from what we heard in the previous, massive ballroom. Just as capable of being gentle, the present system&#151Wilson Sophia loudspeakers, Ayre V-5xe power amplifier, K-5xe MP preamplifier, MacBook Pro feeding data to the USB input of the Ayre DX-5 disc player, Clearaudio Innovation and Concept turntables, Fosgate and Ayre phono preamplifiers, and lots of Synergistic Research ART room treatments and cabling&#151showcased muscularity, speed, and drama.

Of course this had something to do with…

The Smallest Audio Vision Room

The smallest Audio Vision room held the smallest system:

Bel Canto e.One CD 2 CD player ($2995), Bel Canto C5i integrated amp/DAC ($1995), Bel Canto e.One 1000 MkII monoblock power amplifiers ($6000/pair), Bel Canto e.One DAC3.5VB ($4945), Anthony Gallo 3.5 Reference loudspeakers ($5999/pair), Clearaudio Concept turntable ($1400) with Clearaudio Aurum Beta Wood cartridge ($575), Cardas Clear Light speaker cable ($1039/2m pair) and interconnects ($692/1m pair), and Quadraspire Q4 Evo equipment rack.

After my eyes, ears, and expectations adjusted to the size of the room, I…