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Taking horns far beyond their Alpine context, Stein Music's Bob XL speakers and subwoofers ($290,000 total) were reproducing Shelby Lynne's "Just a Little Lovin'" with warmth, solidity, and gratifying musicality. Company founder/designer Holger Stein attributed part of the system's success to the new Stein Music Matrix cable series. These silver cables are assembled on the company's own braiding machine, which allows them to control all parameters. Stein told me that they use special metrics to change the vector of the cable's magnetic fields so that their sum is zero.
As someone accustomed to thinking of Auralic components as little boxes, the size and casing of their new Sirius G2 upsampling processor ($6000) suggests to me that the company is exploring new territory. It sure sounds that way from this product's description. Due late summer or early fall, the Sirius G2 is intended for placement between a streamer and DAC—any company's DAC—and is claimed to upgrade both "the processing power and the original performance envelope" of the DAC. Auralic's press literature says that by handling a DAC's data processing burden, the Sirius G2 "dramatically reduces…
When I entered the MSB room, a track from the JVC XRCD version of Sonny Rollins's Rollins Plays for Bird was transmitting all of the recording's smooth, warm, and sophisticated elegance. That last word isn't one I use often when describing high-end systems, but that's exactly what I experienced here.
Although some obvious room-associated challenges affected the sound from baroque violinist Rachel Podger's Channel Classics SACD Perla Barocca, the sound was smooth, warm, spacious and quite grounded in the earth. Podger's violin, in particular, sounded especially beautiful.
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I wandered in to the room shared by, among other companies, Accustic Arts and Fischer & Fischer. The news from this room is two new high-value products—by which I mean that they're cheaper than the company's main lines, so there's a good probability that they offer good value. High-end companies trickling down appears to be a Munich High End trend—note, for instance, the Mark Levinson No.5101 SACD player/streaming DAC I wrote about earlier today.
Shipping immediately after Munich High End, the Power 1 integrated amplifier is a classic integrated with an optional phono board…
No less than four new Nordost products received their first showing at Munich High End. The Valhalla 2 Tonearm Cable + ($5000), due by early June, is a monofilament design that contains four silver-plated solid-core copper conductors, in a twisted-pair arrangement that creates a left and right channel, each individually wrapped in a silver braided shield to eliminate crosstalk. This cable comes with two detachable silver-plated ground whips designed to enhance grounding and eliminate hum.
Due by the end of June, the round Nordost QPoint ($750) is the first "Resonance Synchronizer" I've…
The new EMM Labs NS1 Network Streamer ($4500—the smallest of the three products in the above photo), due in two months, seems to be Ed Meitner's response to the dCS Network Bridge. The NS1 will decode up to 24/192 PCM and DSD 64 and fully unfold MQA, and is a Roon-ready endpoint. In addition, when connected via the company's proprietary Optilink to other EMM Labs products, including the DV2 Integrated Converter that received a rave when I reviewed it for Stereophile, the NS1 can be optically isolated from the network to reduce noise. The NS1's inputs include ethernet and USB; its outputs, in…
Marten, which is currently searching for new distribution in the US, unveiled its new Mingus Orchestra four-way loudspeaker (185,000/pair). Using the same drivers and crossover as their top-of-the-line Supreme 2 (450,000/pair), albeit with fewer bass drivers and a less expensive cabinet, the new Marten sounded superb in the context of a first-rate system.
Battery-powered by a Stromtank 2500, which transcended a host of serious problems with the show venue's AC power, the system delivered absolutely crisp, clean, and beautiful sound on a track from the LP The King James Version from…
Something really cool happened in the room shared by Grand Prix Audio of the US and Apertura Audio of France. For the first time, I witnessed a rack/support comparison that confirmed for me the importance of both for optimal system performance.
Using a basic Quadraspire rack and Grand Prix Audio's prototype Monza rack ($18,500), along with Grand Prix's new and larger Apex XL feet (included with the Monza rack, $1000/set of three for those under gear), Grand Prix's Alvin Lloyd moved a CH Precision P1 phono stage from the Quadraspire to his forthcoming rack while playing Count Basie's "…
The big news in this excellent-sounding system was the two new power cables from Purist Audio Design. First was the Purist Diamond Limited Edition AC Power Cable ($6300/1 meter, with an ultimate length of 1.8 tip to tip). Composed of 10-gauge Nano silver, the cable includes a five-stage filter box intended to counteract RMI and EF from outside forces and the internal workings of equipment. Beneath that baby lies Purist's all-new Diamond Revision Neptune AC Power Cable ($3800/meter), which contains 8-gauge copper wrapped with strands of Nano silver.
Also heard were Zesto Audio's Andros…
On static display: three products from Cary that just started shipping earlier this year.
Both the DMS-600 ($6995) and the DMS-550 Network Audio Players utilize AKM DAC chips, which appear to be less widely used in the industry than Sabre chips; Cary's Bill Wright told me that Cary always preferred the Burr-Browns until that company was bought by AKM.
The 550 uses the AKM 4497 chip, while the more expensive DAC exploits the AKM 4497eq, which supports 32-bit / 768kHz PCM and DSD up to 512. Both accept both wired (RJ45 Ethernet) and wireless connections, and both are…