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You’re going to need to indulge me a bit, because, due to some communication difficulties, I’m not totally confident of some prices and components in this room. If I understood correctly, the handmade-in-Japan, 1-bit Sparkler Audio S503 CD Player/Transport costs $1650, and the build-it-yourself EleKit TU-8600R integrated amplifier, also from Japan, goes for $1785. The loudspeaker system appears to be custom, from AER, including that company's BD2 driver (3000 each, according to the AER website) in an acrylic stand that looks like AER's Custom (5500/pair) but with the addition of the larger…
After trying more than once to get into the CAD room at Munich High End, I ended up hearing a significantly smaller version of their system in Long Beach. This time, the hybrid integrated amplifier was the excellent Aesthetix Mimas ($7000 without optional modules), which I’ve reviewed for the August issue of Stereophile, and the speakers the diminutive Swiss Boenicke W8 SE ($12,500).
When I entered, the voice of the great, irreplaceable mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli singing Mozart’s “Laudate Dominum” was hard to distinguish. (Yes, two rooms in a row playing Bartoli: life is good.) Perhaps…
An intriguing system from MK Audio LLC of Charlotte, NC, brought to the fore Arion Audio’s nearly full-range AMT line-array Apollo System loudspeaker ($24,900/pair). The Apollos, which were paired with active subwoofers, claim an astounding 105dB sensitivity—sensitive enough to work with Triode Labs' 2A3 3.5W vacuum tube amplifiers (no price supplied). At least I think I was hearing the 2A3s, because also in view were their hybrid class-D amplifiers ($6995/pair). Preamplification was the company’s LS-200 hybrid line-stage ($3995).
When I entered, Merle Haggard & Willie Nelson were…
Jeffrey Catalano has come cross-country to exhibit. I missed him at the last show. I simply must go to the High Water Sound room.
As did many others. The word is out that, thanks to his superb, analog-based set-up, Jeffrey almost always gets great sound from his abundant collection of less-than-standard fare LPs. This time was no exception. The sound on Dean Martin Swings (Dean’s first LP) was gorgeous, the man’s smooth midrange conveyed to perfection. Sonics admittedly were dated on the English Chamber Orchestra’s recording of Britten’s Simple Symphony, but this system nailed its liquid…
Please join me in giving a hearty shout out to newcomer Alaia Audio, whose exhibit proved that all is not parched in the state of Arizona. Showing their forthcoming Ekahi two-way stand mounted loudspeaker ($8849/pair with stands, due in August), this loudspeaker weighed 54.2lb plus 31.8lb for the stand and claims a frequency range of 42Hz—20kHz.
It also sounded quite fine, with a good soundstage and lovely midrange. Making allowances for the source, an old Oppo BDP 95, and the “nothing special” cabling, the pairing of Alaia’s Ekahi with the LKV Research Verito 1 180 Watt Integrated…
It always helps to end 7.5 hours of show coverage on a high note. That was certainly the case in
the Audio Concepts room, where the midrange sounded gorgeous on a recording of
Beethoven’s Paris Trio. Images were a mite small, as one might expect from smaller speakers in
a small room, but the liquid flow and notable musicality of this system more than compensated.
Switching gears, Hugh Masekela’s “Abangoma” benefitted from a perfectly proportioned,
ideally illumined top and captivating midrange. Bass was a bit thud-like, but those sounda were
correctly pitched, which goes for a lot. I’m not…
I don’t know about you, but I find the design of Esoteric’s Grandioso series enclosures quite attractive. In Long Beach, they also sounded great. Paired with Von Schweikert Endeavor E-5 MKII Speakers ($40,000/pair), an entire SUV full of Grandioso gear (including multiple outboard power supplies) impressed as exceptionally lively, solid, and musical.
I’ve sometimes described the Esoteric sound as dark, but I heard none of that in the company’s new top-of-the-line components. Backgrounds were gratifyingly quiet on Patricia Barber’s “She’s a Lady,” the top was open and illumined, midrange…
Dragon, Commander, Innamorata . . . did you ever get the feeling that Jeff Wells wants you to know that Wells Audio means business?
Not that you needed to heed the names: The sound was sufficient to let show attendees know that, as with the Esoteric/Von Schweikert system I had just heard, this system excelled in healthy, alive sound that included a fine midrange and a lively shine to the sound. I really enjoyed the sound on a track from JT Coldfire, and sat amazed that an exhibitor not only loved but also chose to play, of his own volition, Luciano Pavarotti's "Una furtiva lagrima."…
I visited three large rooms on the second floor, and all of them suffered from soft, moveable air walls whose porous surfaces and interior reek havoc with soundwaves and let sound bleed between rooms. If a system played at decent levels, which was necessary in the extremely large space sponsored by Ayon Audio, Lumenwhite, BBS Audio Racks, and USA Tube Audio, the results were often noisy and chaotic, rendering a fair sonic assessment of the components in the system impossible.
Here, we heard different Ayon Electronics—Epsilon Gen 4 Mono Amps ($36,000/pair), Auris preamp ($10,500), and S-…
Having had components from Wilson, D’Agostino, Aqua, IsoTek, and Kubala-Sosna in my reference system, I have a good sense of their strengths. Hence, I can categorically state that, probably due to untamable room acoustics—see my previous post—the sound I heard from Alma Music & Audio’s pairing of the prototype Dan D’Agostino Progression Integrated amplifier ($18,000 base, +$2000 with phono and +$5000 with digital module) with Wilson Audio Sasha DAW speakers ($37,900/pair) and products from the companies mentioned above was not representative of what these components are capable of.…