The sound in the Lamm Industries system started with a digital front end from NeoDio, a full complement of Kubala-Sosna cables, and the Wilson MAXX 3. I totally blissed out listening to Arleen Auger singing works by Aaron Copland. The total cost of this system as I heard it was more than $335,000. This doesn’t include the…
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Amplification in the Signature system in the Lamm room featured the ML3 Signature power amplifiers ($139,290/pair). Like the LL1 preamplifier, the ML3 isalso a four-chassis system. These 32W, single-ended, pure class-A amp is based on a direct-heated GM-70 triode.
One of the great things about coming to CES is getting the opportunity to hear gear that’s rarely near. I was really happy as I strolled down the 35th floor to walk into the Lamm room. I don’t have a Lamm dealer in Minneapolis so I haven’t ever had the chance to hear this lauded and expensive tube gear.
The Lamm room featured a cost-no-object system that included the world premiere of the Lamm LL1 Signature Preamplifier. This $42,690 statement is a four-chassis dual-monophonic preamplification system featuring separate power supplies for each channel as well as separate control…
Olive and Thiel have teamed up with the help of zöet networking technology from a company called Bicom, and have created a complete media server/powered speaker system. Included in the system is a 2TB Olive 4HD music server which has been specially outfitted with an audio networking system using ethernet cables for connecting to the speakers.
Bicom's Charles Wills was on hand to explain that the biggest challenge was to get the custom 6.5-inch coaxial/coincident Thiel SCS4D IP-based self-powered speakers hooked up via the digital connections to be in bit-perfect sync with each…
Here we see Simaudio's Lionel Goodfield proudly displaying his company's new Moon 300D DAC which retails for $1,600 and is available now. Inputs on the back include USB, SPDIF and Toslink and can accept streams up to 24bit/192kHz.
The DAC sports both balanced (XLR) and single-ended (RCA) analog outputs. Internal upsampling uses 24-bit/352.8kHz processing and the company claims jitter is "a virtual non-issue" due to its proprietary digital clocking system.
Bel Canto has clearly been busy on the digital front. Three new DACs are on display: the e.One DAC1.5 at $1,395, e.One DAC2.5 at $1,995, and the e.One DAC3.5VB at $3,495. The company explains that the core of all three products is the "jitter-eliminating" Two-Stage Master Reference UltraClock.
In addition to "Virtual Battery" technology, all three have AES, BNC, Coaxial RCA and Toslink inputs, with the 3.5VB also including an ST Glass-Fiber input (to be used with the company's USB 24/96 LightLink converter for long cable runs) and the other two having instead 24/96 USB. The 3.5VB…
Designer Peter Madnick, one of the original founders of Audio Alchemy a couple decades back, has returned as part of a new Southern California company called Constellation Audio. In addition to preamp and amplifier offerings, on hand was the $50,000 Sirius DAC and CD player two box system. One box (which they call the "clean box") contains the DAC and audio stuff and then the "dirty box" houses the transport and power supplies (pictured above).
The company's entire line of products have a unique Jetsons retro/future look with clean lines that suggest fine cloth stretched over wire…
Irresistible warmth in the midrange. It's not what you usually associate with digital, but it's the only way to describe digital reproduction in the EAR USA room. Auditioned were the EAR Acute CD player ($5495), EAR 509 monoblocks ($14,000), and EAR 912 preamplifier ($11,500), played through the brand-new Marten Getz loudspeakers ($20,000/pair) and connected by Jorma Origo cabling. The new Marten Getz, part of the Marten Heritage series and seen hear in JA's photo with EAR's legendary designer Tim de Paravicini, is a three-way model that combines an active and passive woofer in a…
Directly across the hall from Musical Surroundings, Garth and Jim White, owner and designer of Aesthetix Audio Corporation, played the same French jazz recording I had just heard. This time, the Clearaudio Innovation Wood turntable ($10,000) with TT2 linear tonearm ($9500) and daVinci v2 cartridge ($5500) did the honors. Handling the rest were the Aesthetix Rhea Signature phono stage ($7,000), part of the Saturn series and named after one of the moons of Saturn; and the same Aesthetix Atlas power amp ($8000) as used across the hall. Vandersteen Quatro Wood speakers, HRS equipment stand…
Nothing can beat starting off a morning in a state of grace. That's how it felt when Garth Leerer of Musical Surroundings warmed up the new Clearaudio Concept turntable ($1400) with Borodin's Quartet No.2, appropriately performed by the Borodin Quartet and reproduced on an immaculate Decca pressing. The sound was warm, liquid, and eminently pleasing - everything I would want from good vinyl reproduction.
The table was equipped with the Benz Ace S Class cartridge ($700), fed through the new Fosgate Signature phono stage ($2500 and finally shipping). The amp was the same Aesthetix…
I was real excited to hear the advanced prototype of the new the SMC-1, a fully balanced linestage preamp collaboration between Steve McCormack and Gary Koh of Genesis. The preamp will come in two versions, the higher-priced of the two probably coming in around $8000. For the extra money, you get higher quality parts and a different sonic signature, which amounts to quite a lot.
Equally enticing was the Weiss DAC202, a FireWire-connected 24/192 DAC ($6500). The converter and analog output stage designs are completely different from those of its predecessor. There's also a remote…