search

How's Tricks?

Hiya, E.
Nice to hear from you. Things are the same here: Busy, and I'm looking forward to your return.

We ship November next Tuesday/Wednesday. Meanwhile, I've sent all the charts to Nerissa for the Buyer's Guide. Pip continues to be a big help; I don't think I could keep everything straight without her. The sales guys are at CEDIA, and Ariel's back in school, so it's a bit quiet today.

Lots of reading to do, and I'm also working on the opening essay for the Guide. Did I mention I'm looking forward to your return?

How are things at home?
SM…

CEDIA Grumpiness

My bus was early, so I almost missed it. I sprained my ankle on Monday, so I can barely hobble down the aisles. Denver is humid. CEDIA is an A/V show. Bitch, bitch, bitch.

Yet, within minutes of entering the Denver Convention Center, I had a huge grin on my face because there was tons of two channel—including the appearance of an actual retail-ready Thiel CS3.7, a fascinating digital stereo, and a turntable from an unexpected source. And that was just the first two aisles.

Unless I hit the mother-lode in the first hour, this is gong to be an interesting CEDIA.

Klipsch Palladium

I saw it from a distance, spotlit and turning on a turntable. It was curved and sensuous, with its deep red flanks casting off highlights. I glanced up at the brandname and saw . . . Klipsch.

Klipsch? Then the turntable brought it face first toward me and I saw its tweeter and midrange contained in Tractrix horns. Yes, Klipsch!

The $15,000/pair P39-F Palladium is the flagship of Klipsch's new Palladium line. The P39-F boasts in-house drivers—all hand-matched to within 0.5dB (and each speaker is matched to within 0.5dB to its mate). The 0.75" tweeter and 4.5" aluminum upper-…

World's Largest Tweeter?

Mirage had a 36" mock-up of their omnipolar tweeter array on the wall, photographed here by Kalman Rubinson. A lot of people (well, me) thought it was real.

Kal Rubinson adds: I turned a corner and saw what any normal person would think was the world's largest ash-tray but, given the context and my psyche, I thought it was Mirage's all-out effort at a center-channel speaker. I grabbed Bob Gassel, Global Director of Training for the Klipsch Group, hoping to have him tell me that this was indeed the ultimate center-channel solution but he disappointed me: It's only an outsized model…

Mirage OM-28

What Mirage did display for real was the OM-28, their $7500/pair floorstander that boasts a real-size omnipolar titanium-dome tweeter, a 5.25" carbon-fiber midrange driver, and two 8" carbon-fiber woofers. The cabinet is ported with down-firing vents.

"This is the perfect solution for ordinary people who want great sound almost anywhere in the room" said Keith Claytor, the Klipsch Group's PR guy. "Audiophiles will be skeptical, but if they actually listen to them, they'll be amazed at how much freedom escaping from the sweet spot gives you."

Stranger things have happened.…

Insider Tip

I stuck my head in Joseph Audio's room and asked, "What's new?"

"Nuttin'" said Jeff Joseph. "Just the same Insiders ($2500/pair) you saw last year and a MJ Acoustics Reference 112 subwoofer ($3200 each). Sit down, listen—you don't even have anything to write about."

It was a good plan, jinxed only by how captivating the sound was. The Insiders, which are designed to be in-wall speakers but were simply hanging on the cubicle's walls, sounded amazing: engrossing, balanced, focused.

"Of course," Joseph said. "Infinite Slope technology was just made for an application…

Where's Pokey?

Lyngdorf was showing a $16,800 system that incorporated its RoomPerfect digital room correction system, which creates an EQ curve based on measurements taken in seven positions. The result is said to be a sweet spot that is spot-on in one position and "extremely fine" for up to eight target positions.

RoomPerfect components come with a measurement microphone and set-up is said to take 15 minutes.

The system on demo included the $2500 CD-1 CD transport/player, the TDAI-2200 control amplifier, the $1800 SDA 200Wpc power amplifier, $2600/pair DP-1 dipole loudspeakers, and $…

Certified!

Thiel was showing honest-to-God production samples of its CS3.7 ($9900/pair), which has a few cosmetic flourishes I hadn't noticed the times I spotted prototypes at earlier Shows. I could be wrong, but that aluminum cowling looks better-integrated with the body than I recall.

Not that they need to, but simply because they could, Thiel was demoing the CS3.7s with a pair of SS-1 subwoofers ($5900/each). The resulting system, at $16k, was almost modest by high-end standards, but the balance and effortless musicality of the system was breath-taking.

Rumor has it that a pair…

Holy Sapphire

Dynaudio actually had a "production prototype" of its $16,500 Sapphire 30 30th anniversary loudspeaker at CEDIA, seen here photographed by Kal Rubinson. All of the drivers are "Evidence-grade," Michael Manoussellis told us. The drivers are Dynaudio's 1.1" (28mm) soft-dome tweeter, 5.5" (15cm) MSP-cone midrange, and two 8" MSP-cone woofers. The cabinet is faceted, hence the jewel reference. It's pretty dramatic looking. Now we're slavering to hear it.

And Now For Something Completely Different

McIntosh has introduced a turntable. It has the classic black and blue faceplate, which looked a tad bizarre to these eyes. The platter is "polished, fully-balanced green tint," meaning glass, we presume. The tonearm and cartridge are custom-made by McIntosh. An isolated speed stabilizer drives the precision motor.