Happily, Ideon’s design team was on hand. Ideon’s designer has…
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My second press day at Munich High End began with an intimate press conference at the Ideon/Baun loudspeaker booth in Halle 3. Benno Baun Meldgaard, former speaker designer for Gamut, Raidho, and Gryphon, was not on hand to discuss the latest developments in his forthcoming speaker line. I first encountered Baun speakers at the 2023 Pacific Audiofest. The first speaker in the Baun line-up is due by the end of 2024. Designed to sit very close to the rear wall, the speakers will range upward in price from about $23,000/pair.
Speaker designer Karl-Heinz Fink’s Fink Team recently bought British loudspeaker brand Epos. “We have changed the Epos designs considerably,” Fink told me about the company’s three speaker models. “Epos loudspeakers are less expensive than Fink Team’s, but the engineering is nearly the same as the Fink Team’s.”
The Epos ES-28N (projected US price $8000/pair or less) is the company’s first three-way loudspeaker. “I’m not convinced by 2 ½ way designs because they can beam,” Fink said. The speaker’s walls utilize constrained layer damping, and the front baffle is nearly 50mm thick. The bass…
Six years after Hans-Ole Vitus, the founder of Danish company Vitus Audio, visited the United States to premier his first three products at CES 2004, Michael Fremer went gaga over the company's top-line MP-P201 Masterpiece Series phono preamplifier. Thirteen years later, at AXPONA 2023, it was my turn to be blown away, this time by the sound of a $385,000 Vitus Audio top-of-the-line Masterpiece series front-end and amplifiers that sang through price-commensurate Estelon Extreme Mk II loudspeakers.
In between—and not for want of trying—Vitus's presence in these pages has been limited to…
Setup and game plan
While my status as a good boy is always open to question—I'm sure I was one sometime in the distant past—I honor manufacturer's wishes when I can. Hence, after friend Scott and I installed the fully-decked-out Vitus RI-101 Mk.II on the free top shelf of my Grand Prix Monza equipment rack, I plugged it directly into the wall, and so it stayed throughout the review.
A simple A-B-A test confirmed that replacing stock, nothing-special feet with Wilson Audio Pedestals delivered increased air and transparency and elevated the whole sonic presentation. Those…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Balanced, class-AB, solid state, integrated stereo amplifier with optional DAC/streamer module. Analog inputs: Three balanced (XLR), two unbalanced (RCA), all 4V RMS tolerable. Outputs: One pair balanced speaker terminals, one pair balanced XLR changeable between pre out & tape out. Rated output power: 300W RMS into 8 ohms, 600W RMS into 4 ohms (both 24.73dBW). Input impedance: 16k ohms. Output impedance: 0.075 ohms (loudspeaker), 33 ohms (Pre/Tape Out). Bandwidth: 800kHz. THD + N: 0.04% at 100W, 1kHz. S/N ratio: >100dB, 1kHz. Power…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: dCS Vivaldi Apex DAC, Vivaldi Upsampler Plus, Vivaldi Master Clock, and Rossini Transport; EMM Labs DV2 Integrated DAC, Meitner MA3 Integrated DAC; Innuos Statement Next-Gen Music Server; Small Green Computer Sonore Deluxe opticalModule; Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with SOtM sCLK-OCX10 Master Clock and sPS-500 power supply; Finisar FTLF8519P3BNL and Broadcom/Avago AFBR-5718PZ 1GB SX-SFP, Gen 5 Fiber Optic modules; Nordost QNet switch and QSource linear power supplies (2); Sonore Audiophile Linear Power Supply; Synology 5-bay 1019+ NAS with…
I put on CD8, two concertos by Joaquín Rodrigo recorded with the San Antonio Symphony in 1967. Concierto andaluz was commissioned by the Romeros' guitar quartet (the three sons plus father Celedonio). The guitars sit dead center in the stereo image, with prominent double basses to the right and first-seat violins to the left. Spread behind the front array, from left to right, are woodwinds and brass. As I heard while making the 3-to-2 channel mix of this recording, every note and its source is clearly located on the soundstage, and the four guitars are distinctly detailed. The 801 D4…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: 3-way vented-box loudspeaker system with bottom port. Aluminum internal construction and bracing. Separate aluminum chambers for midrange driver and tweeter. Drive units: 1" (25mm) Diamond Dome tweeter; 6" (150mm) Continuum cone FST midrange; two 10" (250mm) Aerofoil Profile woofers. Crossover frequencies: 400Hz and 4kHz. Frequency range: 13Hz–35kHz, –6dB. Frequency response: 15Hz–28kHz, ±3dB. Sensitivity: 90dB/2.83V/m. Harmonic distortion: 2nd and 3rd harmonics (90dB at 1m, on-axis) <1%, 30Hz–20kHz; <0.3%, 100Hz–20kHz. Nominal impedance: 8…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: dCS Bartók streaming DAC, Oppo DV-981HD universal disc player.
Analog sources: Technics SL-1200mk7 Anniversary Edition turntable, Shure V-15 Type III, Ortofon 2M Blue, and Grace F-9e cartridges.
Preamplifiers: Benchmark LA-4, Pro-Ject Phono Box RS2 phono.
Power amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2, LSA Warp 1.
Loudspeakers: B&W 808.—Tom Fine
Sidebar 3: Measurements
For logistical reasons, I measured one of the 801 D4 Signature speakers, serial number 2320 0004094 FP 44229, in Tom Fine's listening room rather than at my home. (My thanks to Tom and Mike Barney for moving furniture to allow me sufficient room for the measurements with the loudspeaker away from the walls and firing along a room diagonal.) I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system with a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the speaker's behavior in the farfield and an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield responses. Because of the speaker's weight—almost 222lb—it…