Regarding their music menu, British boy band escapee, alias forger, and Audio Note (UK) Sales Executive Adrian Ford-Crush eschewed smooth jazz martini vocals, overplayed blues anthems, and yet another Thriller playback for contemporary electronic, rock, and jazz. Bring it!
The front-end of the all-Audio Note (UK) system involved a TT Three Turntable with PSU1 ($9410), Arm Three/II Tonearm…
Founded in 2004 by former members of Marantz Japan, Soul Note is a subsidiary of CSR, Inc., headquartered in…
Running into my Brooklyn buddy and Mytek head honcho Michal Jurewicz at the local Safeway (hotel food: $$$), he invited me to an after-hours shootout between his forthcoming GaN FET-powered, Empire monoblocks ($19,990/pair, below), which are specified as offering 400W into 8 ohms and 800W into 4 ohms. His dueling partner in this shootout was Albert Guerra of AGD Productions, who brought his GaN FET-operated Gran Vivace Monoblocks ($18,500/pair).
Streaming Qobuz to Mytek's Empire Streamer ($24,995, above)…
O'Hanlon had the brand spanking new Graham Audio LS8/1 Limited Edition standmount loudspeakers ($9700/pair, with stands). When I told him I owned a pair of the Spendor BC1s, upon which the Grahams are based, O'Hanlon fiendishly poured more whisky down my throat, wrestled me to the carpeted hotel floor, and introduced me to golden Montreal harpist, Isabeau Corriveau (bottom photo…
That's why the Three Volti Musketeers always play music loudly, pre and post show hours, checking the rig, always experimenting. I can attest to this phenomena, as I was up early and late, researching room…
This room gets my vote for the most beautiful looking system of the show. A stunner.
Tidal Audio's new The Piano G3 loudspeakers ($64,000/pair), in piano black finish, were a knockout, and Rossi's new Brama "collection" of components were at once, sleek, and statuesque.
Regarding Tidal Audio's The Piano G3s, the press release, paraphrased, stated "The cabinet is even more silent and rigid, all new drivers, the new diamond tweeter has no hard contact to the cabinet, new…
CAF 2022 was all abuzz with news of Andrew Jones's new MoFi Electronics 10 standmount loudspeaker, the SourcePoint 10 ($3699/pair, Stereophile review by John Atkinson scheduled for the February 2023 issue). With a specified sensitivity of 91dB/2.83V/m and an impedance of 8 ohms, the two-way, reflex-loaded speaker features a 1.25" soft-dome tweeter concentrically mounted in a 10" woofer. But that's not all that was on display and in use in the MoFi room.
In the listening room, in addition to Jones' speakers…
Spinning a vinyl disc on big system one, the RCA Living Stereo version of Ernest Ansermet's The Royal Ballet Gala Performances including the The Nutcracker, the music floated, apart from the hi-fi system, with excellent detail, resonance…
My CAF running buddy (and superior artist, journalist, and fine fellow), Michael Lavorgna, of must-read audio site TwitteringMachines.com, corralled me (after two refreshing Sazeracs) into the Fidelity Imports room, where the French-made Diptyque DP107 speakers ($7999/pair) were making fast, streamlined, thrilling music. The 86dB/W/m, 6 ohm Diptyque DP107 is…
Stereophile, I'd not heard Jacob George's Rethm Maarga speakers. But I have heard, drooled over, and yearned to review Justin Weber's Ampsandsound amplifiers (Jim Austin, are you reading this?!) after covering them at the last NY headphone show. Justin brought his new Black Pearl 300B stereo power amplifier ($16,000) and The Preamp ($1850, both available…