With 4 ohms nominal impedance and a claimed efficiency of 95-96dB for the…
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Mark Conti’s MC Audiotech room was dominated by his company’s just-launched, Paul Paddock-designed MC Audiotech Forty-10 2-way loudspeaker ($35,000/pair including crossover). Hidden in the high-frequency spaced array are 10 identical bending wave drivers “of the latest generation,” covering everything above 100 Hz. In its Folded Cube low-frequency enclosure reside two “industrial type” woofers in a dipole arrangement. The speaker uses a dedicated hybrid external crossover with low-frequency level/contour controls.
The big news in the Musical Surroundings room was the introduction of the AMG Viella Forte 12 Turbo turntable ($30,000), shown in its engraved version ($32,000). The “super” version of the German-made Viella table, it includes a plinth that's 280% larger than the standard Viella plinth, a taller, thicker, machined-PVC platter, a larger clamp, a 130% larger arm base, enhanced circuitry, and a new toroidal transformer in the power supply.
The Viella Forte 12 was in some pretty rich company, including $150,000 worth of Boulder electronics, a Clearaudio Jubilee cartridge ($6000), Vienna…
Occupying a small but significant place in Bluebird Music’s outer suite, the new Jadis Orchestra Black integrated amplifier ($3995) was producing sweet and enjoyable sound that, on a track from Count Basie Meets Oscar Peterson, felt like a lovely warm kiss. Thanks are most certainly due in part to its system mates: Chord’s Dave DAC and Blu 2 transport with built-in MScaler and Vienna Acoustics Anniversary Edition Haydn speakers ($1500/pair).
The Jadis Orchestra Black, which is manufactured for and solely distributed in North America, is a scaled-down, push/pull Class-AB integrated…
Two more winners from Bluebird Music awaited in that distributor’s inner sanctum: the new Spendor D9.2 loudspeaker ($11,495/pair) and the SME Model 12A turntable ($10,900) outfitted with an Ortofon Cadenza Bronze cartridge. I loved the Spendor’s midrange wall of sound and impressive low end. An evolution of the D9 that was introduced three years ago—it has the same drivers and cabinet—it uses a tweaked crossover, additional bracing, “dynamic damping” for both the cabinet and the drive units and sports a new magnetic grill. I’m told that the old and new speakers measure the same but sound…
McIntosh had (at least) one big system, two smaller systems, and one minisystem in their huge room. While I’m pretty certain that I heard the 70th Anniversary amp and preamp, that their many lights can be switched from blue to green, and that if tubes short, their indicators turn red, I can’t give you much more specific information other than a photo of the big system’s intriguing-looking speaker. When I asked for an equipment sheet with prices, I was handed a USB stick containing 16 multipage PDFs, with components identified by model number only. That's too much to process under deadlines…
On the second day of RMAF 2019, I visited nine big rooms in the Gaylord Convention Center. I even spent time in rooms I had not intended to cover, in an attempt to get a handle on the sonic challenges exhibitors faced in those oversized spaces. After auditioning equipment pairings both familiar and new and hearing the same sonic characteristics—overly preponderant midrange, toned down and even seriously truncated top, grayed colors, and many more regrettables—I came to the conclusion that the acoustics in the Gaylord’s often impossibly large 3rd floor convention spaces are not good for music…
Here, I regret to say, is another report not on the equipment but on the room.
The story in the PS Audio room was the company's new loudspeaker, the AN3, various prototypes of which have been demoed at audio shows throughout 2019. The RMAF demo pair was described by the company as the final prototype. The design—strongly influenced by the late Arnie Nudell, the "AN" in AN3—includes servo-corrected powered woofers, a folded ribbon tweeter, a rectangular planar midrange, and an 8" cone "mid-bass coupler. (The information in the previous sentence was based on earlier prototypes. Here's the…
The all-one-family of Børresen loudspeakers, Aavik electronics, and Ansuz cabling, distributed by Gated HiFi and displayed by Chicago dealer NextLevel HiFi, was having a really rough time of it until their new Aavik U-380 integrated amplifier ($39,000) showed up. It was several days late. RMAF had been chosen for its Global Debut, so everyone was on pins and needles until the arrival of this 300-watt-into-8-ohms, class-D baby, which includes separate DACs for PCM and DSD, four clocks and four power supplies, separate volume controls for each input, and optional dual phono stages claimed to…
Once I took a look inside, I had to know and hear more.
Meet Jeff Merkel, a CU-Denver researcher studying 3-D Audio. “I’m just evangelizing 3-D Audio,” Merkel told me during a brief lull before a group of people who had been hanging in the headphone area descended for a listen-and-chat. “We’ve been mostly doing electronic music and working with VR and video games, but we’re also interested in classical and immersive theater,” Jeff said
Turns out Jeff has been working with Rainbow Militia, a local Denver performance group. He’s also taken the rig to Burning Man. If you’re thinking…
This company’s loudspeakers have Art Dudley’s name all over them, said Serinus to self upon viewing Troy Audio’s Hellena MK II loudspeaker ($120,000/pair with outboard crossover, $80,000 pair with internal crossover). The Hellena MK II uses a 604-8E alnico coaxial driver, made by Great Plains Audio, that owes its design to the original Altec 604-E. Its woofer, Great Plains Audio’s handmade Model 515-C, incorporates a massive alnico V magnetic assembly. There's also an alnico horn supertweeter. The cabinet is composed of sandwiched layers of Russian Baltic birch. The Hellena is big and heavy—…