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From the metaphoric opening bell on, the Marketplace was filled with music lovers hunting for analog and digital media as well as audio products. This photo, taken at 10:30 AM on Saturday, attests to the draw. Note MA Recordings’ Todd Garfinkle on the left, hawking his superbly recorded wares, some of which are available on vinyl or for download in hi-rez.
On an electric guitar track, the name of which I failed to get, the Legacy Audio Calibre Monitor ($5500/pair) got down, dark, and dirty in a good way while fighting one of the most wicked upper bass room resonances known to humankind. Beyond the nodes, the guitar’s highs were lovely, the midrange fine, and the depiction of voice on Shawn Colvin’s “Killing the Blues” was excellent. The speakers were sounding quite fine, and I trust they will sound better still in a more hospitable space than this narrow corner room in which they were sandwiched, as they have sounded better in other rooms I've…
Eye candy, eh? Tune Audio’s Anima 3-way fully horn-loaded loudspeakers ($58,000/pair) claim 109dB sensitive. THEY certainly were drawing in listeners, to the extent that I had to visit twice before I could get into the room then slowly inch my way closer to the sweet spot.
The Anima horns were not the only expensive goodies in this system, which also showcased WAVAC Audio Lab’s EC-300B SE Stereo Amplifier ($38,000), AC-2 Conditioner ($29,000), and PRZ1 Linestage Preamplifier ($29,500) alongside Nagra’s CDC disc player ($22,000) and Classic DAC ($17,000). Connections were made by Crystal…
If Scott Walker Audio had staked out a mini-empire on floor 3, Sunny Components of Covina, California, did the same on floor 6. The first room I visited, of the four from Sunil Merchant, included Egglestonworks' 87dB-efficient Nico speakers ($4250/pair), which had not finished breaking in. Nonetheless, wireless Qobuz streams of St. Vincent’s “Smoking Section,” Billy Eilish’s “Hostage,” and a 24/96 file of Kurt Elling & Lee Ritenour’s “River Man” showed the speakers and their Bryston roommates capable of conveying fine, natural, appealing timbres. These speakers are definitely worthy of…
Who would have expected to hear a theorbo reproduced in 24/192 at an audio demo? It was followed by Eva Cassidy’s “Songbird” in Redbook. Both of those tracks sound very fine in this room from Sunny Components, and with a DSD file of the classic “The Girl from Ipanema,” this system revealed an impressively large amount of close-miked detail. Doing the honors: MartinLogan Masterpiece ESL13A speakers ($14,995/pair) and Dynamo 800X subwoofer ($799), Hegel H-590 integrated amplifier ($11,000), Wolf Audio Streamer/Server ($7600), Audience and AudioQuest cabling and conditioning, and Quadraspire…
To these ears, the pairing of Vandersteen Quatro loudspeakers ($15,499/pair) and the company’s smaller M5-HPA monoblocks ($15,800/pair) with the Jeff Rowland Corus Stereo preamplifier + PSU ($21,900) and Conductor phonostage ($8500) is a winner. Images were on the small side, but the tonalities on an LP of Gerry Mulligan playing “Making Whoopee” were to whoop over. A 96K MQA file of Muddy Waters’ “Never Go Back Again” revealed just how much depth this lovely-sounding system could produce (even if MQA-haters are praying we go back, back, back to the pre-MQA era).
Also heard to…
Some may have found these burnished beauties a little over-precise, but to others, it was the system among all those presented by Sunny Components whose absolute clarity put it over the top—or so was my brief impression on an LP of Cécile McLorin Salvant singing “Le Front caché sur les Genoux.”
Heard, with the understanding that CH Precision prices listed are starting prices and do not include lists of options and possible upgrade paths: CH Precision C1 D/A Controller ($32,000), D1 SACD / CD Drive ($38,000), L1 preamp ($34,500), P1 phono stage ($31,000), X1 dual power supplies ($20,500),…
It took two tries over the course of two days to find a seat, but on Sunday afternoon, I finally squeezed into the room shared by EAR and PranaFidelity. The wait was worth it.
After the overplayed “These Bones Will Rise Again” from a CD of the Fairfield Four—a recording whose limited octave compass established the beauty of the system’s midrange—EAR’s Dan Meinwald took over and it was on to “Stratusphunk” from an LP of the George Russell Sextet. The bass line was excellent—absolutely firm—and the balance between highs and lows ideal.
Then, as if my mind had not been shattered…
Red was more than the color of my true love’s hair toward the end of T.H.E. Show Long Beach, as I moved from one winning red speaker to another. This time, from Alma Music & Audio, it was the Wilson Audio TuneTot ($9800/pair), the entry-level loudspeaker from Wilson, which I was hearing for the first time. Although engineered to perform optimally when placed near boundaries (e.g. on bookshelves or close to walls), here it sounded exceptionally fine sitting out in the open on unidentified stands.
We began with a DSD file of Henry Mancini’s “Theme from The Pink Panther,” which…
After Emiko Carlin of T.H.E. Show basically ordered me to check out AirHush’s display at T.H.E. Show, I spent a few minutes speaking with company CCO Michael Quinby. It turns out that the company’s mass-loaded vinyl ISAT (Inflatable Sound Attenuation Technology) systems, initially designed for Pro applications and large recording environments, were being used in the Brooks Berdan room to reduce interactions with the hotel’s sonically dreadful air wall partitions. Some audiophiles use them for noise isolation in condos, especially when they want to turn up the volume on their high-end rigs…