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I've always enjoyed Steven Norber's loudspeakers, but the pairing of his brand new Dhara (as in continuous flow) 40lb loudspeakers ($TBD) and Purna/Ma amplifier ($8950) with the late Tim de Paravicini's E.A.R. Phono Classic phono preamplifier ($1895 in black or $2395 in chrome) sounded exceptionally fine. Other brands deserve equal credit, but what's most important to know is that on an old Nonesuch LP of Schutz Motets, soundstaging, warmth, and beauty were supreme. The holiness of the experience had everyone sitting in absolute silence. Whoever thought people would be so still on a Saturday…
Nothing has changed with Spatial Audio's M3 loudspeaker ($4950/pair) since the last time I heard it. The design is the same, as is the speakers' ability to totally disappear at very close range. It may have been a bit spooky to look right at the speaker and hear nothing coming from its position, but once you get over that, the imaging is remarkable.
I visited this room at the time of day when my energy was beginning to plummet, and only spent a brief amount of time. Electronics included the Quad Artera Solus Play, Gold Note electronics—their Mediterraneo turntable ($7800) was the most…
Lest you think I've left something out of this headline, I haven't. The 24lb Heavenly Soundworks active FIVE17 loudspeaker ($10,000/pair), shown at T.H.E. Show with matching stands ($1000/pair), needs only a computer or other streaming/choice and some cabling to do its thing.
Inside the cabinet are three dedicated class-D amplifiers that utilize NCore technology and drive the 5" woofer with its two 8" high-excursion side-firing passive radiators, 3.5" midrange unit, and 1" soft-dome tweeter. Together, they produce a specified frequency response of 30Hz–20kHz ±1dB. The response may drop to…
There was something for everyone in Sunil Merchant's Sunny Components room. Even if you didn't have a spare half million dollars to give for great music reproduction, you could still listen to MoFi's Lenny Mayeux spin vinyl on the Brinkmann Taurus turntable with 12.1 tonearm ($21,000) and Koetsu cartridge ($3995). Amplification was a CH Precision M 1.1 Amplifier ($54,000), L1 line preamplifier ($34,500), P1 phono stage ($31,000), and X1 dual power supply powering the P1 and L1. And if you had questions afterwards, you could always approach Merchant, Mayeux, or CH's Ralph Sorrentino.
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Voss Audio, a southern California-based brand new to me, made an extremely strong show debut with its Voss Steve Keiser Design Magnum Opus stereo power amplifier ($80,000) and Vitra preamplifier ($50,000). The amp’s designer, who died last year, was one of the founders of B&K components. John Voss’s company also manufactures the Vitus phono preamplifier ($45,000). Rather than showing it, he teamed up with Philip O'Hanlon's On A Higher Note (shown above) to use a Revox/SonoruS PR99 open-reel deck to play master tapes through Graham LS5/8 loudspeakers ($14,000/pair) with Townshend super…
By a long shot, most people who visited the marketplace immediately headed to the LP bins and rummaged away. In fact, if my photo had come out, I could show you how busy the room was at 10:15AM on Friday, a time reserved for press, when a combination of vinyl-hungry exhibitors, attendees who managed to get in early, and press people from online publications that are dedicated to serving their owners first were pouring through bins, looking for buried treasure.
Hopefully, some of those folks made it over to Todd Garfinkle's MA Recordings booth and discovered some his fabled audiophile…
This report could also be titled "My Visit with Cable Support Plate and A/V Room Service," but that's hardly as eye-catching. And catching your eye is my goal, because there was a lot of import at these two booths.
John H. Bring's Cable Support Plate (CSP) manufactures single, dual, and quad power outlet plates designed to support heavy power cables that tend to pull out of the wall. There's even a long-nose version for outlets that are positioned sideways, with receptor prongs aligned on the vertical. All CSPs are 3D-printed; the largest takes 27 hours to manufacture. Given that one of…
I love when industry veterans get excited by new discoveries. Thus, when David Solomon of Qobuz began one of our interactions with, "Have you been to the room that's premiering the GaN (gallium nitride) tubed components?" I asked him to tell me more. David followed with something like, "I couldn't figure out how anyone could have possibly incorporated GaN class-D power technology into KT150, K88, and K120 GaNTubes until the guy showed the 'tubes' to me." That's when I knew I had to visit.
Nor did Solomon stop praising AGD's equipment and sound after we met. During my visit to…
In this moderately priced system, speaker designer and recording engineer Tony Minasian paired his new Oriaco G6 standmount loudspeaker ($3500/pair with stands) with Denon and Marantz gear. "Most of the sound comes from the full-range driver," he told me. "The tweeter mostly acts like a supertweeter." From what I could tell, its impact is major.
Minasian described his baby as "a BBC design with a twist." That twist involves different damping material and, perhaps, the placement of the rear port.
Minasian is also a recording engineer whose discs have been used by…
It's been a few shows since I've encountered one of Jeff Candy's granite Pietra loudspeakers, whose distribution is mostly confined to Southern California due to the high cost of shipping a speaker that weighs in excess of 350lb. Which doesn't mean that you can't get one shipped to upstate New York if that's where you live.
Pietra's flagship Model 3.10 ($19,000/pair) deviates from the large Pietra speaker I've seen in the past in that it's a one-piece sealed 3-way design with an internal divider between the woofer and the two drivers above it. The front baffle is ¼" thick marble, and the…