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There was one room at AXPONA where I was too in awe to take notes. In shock is more like it. The brothers who own JS Audio have acquired and restored the very first pair of WAMM loudspeakers that the late Dave Wilson began to manufacture in 1981. It seems that after living with the model for a few months, Dave's other half in the truest sense, his beloved wife and life partner Sheryl Lee, pictured below at AXPONA, preferred a different cabinet color for their living room and encouraged him to move this pair along. (If I've got that wrong, please forgive me.)
"Cover McIntosh," Jim Austin wrote by text. "Sure," I replied. "But I don't see them listed in the show guide." "They're behind the escalator," Jim replied.
And there they were. Against a wall, with comfortable couches facing the system, McIntosh's Ken Zelin had set up a lovely system headlined by the new, two-piece McIntosh C12000 preamplifier ($16,000, pictured below). Released just a few months ago, it's a completely balanced, dual-mono design with an external power supply. Replacing a preamp that had specific MM and MC cartridge settings, the McIntosh C12000 has two configurable phono…
Of Morton Grove, IL dealer Quintessence Audio's three rooms at AXPONA, those in the ground floor Knowledge and Perfection showrooms remained. Since it's hard to imagine Perfection without Knowledge, reality cast the die to first cover a superb Knowledge set-up that mated Wilson Audio Alexx V speakers ($135,000/pair, or $151,000/pair in the show pair's special finish) with Audio Research electronics (see below), Clearaudio Master Innovation Wood turntable with TT-MI linear tonearm ($62,000) and Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement MC cartridge ($17,500), dCS's new Vivaldi Apex DAC/Clock/Upsampler…
Are we truly moving closer to the alpha and omega of high-end audio, or are we still at the beginning of an ever widening—some would say deviating—path that now includes virtual reality 360° listening, Dolby Atmos, Apple Immersion, and so much more. All I know for certain is that showgoers who visited Quintessence Audio's Perfection Audio when Wilson Audio's Sasha DAW speakers ($39,000/pair) had their grilles on came away with only a partial sense of all this system could accomplish.
Thanks to Simaudio Moon's 780Dve streaming DAC ($18,000), 820S outboard power supply ($8500), 850P preamp…
Ah, domesticity. Just when I had the reference system sounding better than ever, the husband decided to relocate his electric keyboard and music stand, which had been positioned along the right wall of the detached music room, to the dining room in the main house. His reason was rational: While I did the reviewer thing in one space, he'd be free to practice keyboard and sing in another. But what was rational to him screwed with my reference sound and drove me to the brink of irrationality.
Before I could pull things back together, the shiny, just-released Burmester 151 MK2 Musiccenter ($…
"There's only one way to design a D/A converter correctly. What is really, really crucial is the regulation loop in the circuit that compares the 'digital' voltage to the analog voltage from the power supply. In other products, I sometimes see cheap capacitors that are not well-suited to the application but were chosen to cut costs. Those parts were probably determined by the price-minded guys in the Controller Department. So, we're very careful about what parts to use where. Sometimes we must use a special ceramic capacitor, and sometimes a far more expensive foil capacitor. Our bottom…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Music server/ streamer with 24/192 upsampling digital processor and analog volume control, 2TB internal SSD, CD playback and ripping capability, remote control, and downloadable iPad control app that can administer a music library, stream internet radio and music services, and play music from USB stick, NAS, internal memory, CD, or network storage, and streaming services including Tidal, Qobuz, and Idagio. Digital input/output: RCA, TosLink, USB 2.0 (3), USB 3.0, Ethernet (RJ-45, Wi-Fi). Analog input: Stereo mini XLR (2 mini-XLR male to XLR female…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: dCS Rossini SACD/CD transport, Rossini DAC, and Rossini Clock; Synology 5-bay 1019+ NAS, Roon Nucleus+ music server, Uptone Audio EtherRegen with AfterDark Giesemann Emperor Double Crown Master Clock, Small Green Computer Sonore opticalModules (2) and Deluxe opticalModule, Linksys routers (2), and Arris modem, all powered by HDPlex 300 (3) and HDPlex 200 linear power supplies (3); Apple 2017 iPad Pro and 2017 MacBook Pro.
Preamplifiers: Dan D'Agostino Momentum HD, darTZeel NHB-18NS.
Power amplifiers: Dan D'Agostino Progression M550…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I tested the Burmester 151 Musiccenter MK2 with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system, controlling it with the Burmester app on the included iPad mini. (After I connected the Musiccenter to my network, the iPad app communicated with it via Wi-Fi.) I used coaxial and optical S/PDIF data, test CDs, and WAV files on a USB stick inserted into one of the rear Type A USB ports. (The Burmester was set to recognize USB files automatically and switched the app to the appropriate Player page when I plugged in the USB stick.) The volume can be set to Variable, with a choice of…
Lenbrook of Canada has several modern hi-fi brands under its "umbrella," and I had the chance to check out some of the latest wares from DALI, NAD, and Bluesound in room 729 at AXPONA.
Thomas Knudsen, a friendly Dane representing Danish company DALI, which is an initialism that stands for "Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries" gave me the details on a couple of their current floorstanding speakers—and shared a bit about the other demo setup equipment.
The DALI Rubicon 8C active speaker—the passive version of which JA reviewed in March 2015—stands out for having two tweeters:…