The active system was rather old-meets-new: It had BBC School Spendor Classic 2/3 speakers ($6100/pair, just over $7000/pair with stands) and a 180Wpc Chord Ultima 6 ($9200) stereo power amplifier. Those followed a high-tech digital source setup with an Aurender N200 (I think)…
Behind that door I encountered a simple but really good-sounding system that didn't call for apologists to stumble over themselves 'splaining. It was a new all-Rega setup: a Rega Planar 1 turntable and tonearm with a Rega Carbon MM cartridge installed ($595…
Strange as it may seem, this huge air-walled exhibit room's sponsor, AudioQuest with Abt Electronics of Chicago, was the mostly invisible partner that enabled Rotel's Michi P5 preamplifier with phonostage ($4299.99—follow-up coming in our August issue) and Michi S5 stereo power amplifiers ($7499/each—reviewing coming in our July issue) to sing through Klipsch Jubilee loudspeakers ($35,000/pair including outboard electronic crossover). That's a lot of parentheses in a single sentence, so let's parse…
"It's the most impressive amplifier made," said Gryphon's Rune Skov about a silent, 450lb component that outputs 210Wpc in pure class-A into 8 ohms, doubles its power down to a startling 0.5 ohm, and boasts 1F (farad) power supply capacity. Then he tortured me…
In my brief listen to "Keith Don't Go"—I resisted the temptation to run out the door—…
The demo was presented by Next Level HiFi, one of several Chicagoland area dealers at AXPONA; one of their three rooms was assigned to me. The…
Another noteworthy debut: a Japanese Analog Relax EX1000 phono cartridge (below) with a body made of 2000-year-old Yakusugi Cedar. Here, it served as transducer on a VPI Avenger turntable. Another fine showing.
The German-made Avantgarde Acoustics Trio G3 horn loudspeaker system with separate Space Horn subs debuted. This latest generation of horns adds active amplification, though the speakers can still be run passively if desired. Each separate horn housing now has its own on-board current-mode amplification, which is neatly tucked away behind the…
The S7t speakers were powered by a 150-watt (into 8 ohms) Unison Research Unico 150 integrated amplifier ($6499 silver or $6999 in black, above) with optional phono stage. Its dual-mono three-stage hybrid design uses ECC83 triodes…
Young English tubed amplifier designer Jordan Jackson has recently started a new company, the aptly named English Acoustics. A couple of his UK-made tube amplifiers were shown: A blue Stereo 21C, 14Wpc, Ultralinear stereo amp ($7499, above) was on static display. A preproduction Stereo 41C, 25Wpc, Ultralinear ($9999) dual-mono stereo amp in a custom red Alfa Romeo finish was in an active system. (Though these English tube…