search

Wells Audio Performs with Honor at Pacific Audiofest

In a room whose vintage TAD Evolution One floorstanders (NFS) attracted considerable attention, Wells Audio equipment delivered consistently fine, solid sound. Jeff Wells's room was also one of many I encountered that dealt with the hotel's lack of Ethernet ports/wired internet by only playing 16/44.1 rips from CD.

A recording by Miles Davis—apologies for failing to get the title—sounded just right. Ditto for a bit of Rossini: Music for Strings and a track from Tierney Sutton. Vocals benefitted especially from the system's lively and attractive midrange.

Heard from Wells…

CH Precision, Ideon, Magico, and more from Audio-Ultra

As much as I attempted to skip equipment we'd recently explored in Chicago, Munich, and/or Costa Mesa, my uncertainty about the intrinsic sound of CH Precision Series 1 equipment impelled me to check out their exhibit from greater Seattle dealer Audio-Ultra. While not everything in the system was from CH Precision—Ideon supplied the Absolute Epsilon DAC ($47,000), Absolute Epsilon Stream ($19,900), and Absolute Epsilon Time Signature V clock ($22,000), all of which complemented Aurender's N20 music server ($12,500)—there was sufficient CH Precision equipment in the chain to draw some…

Great Sound: Popori Acoustics Electrostats from Notable Audio Products

I first heard Hungarian speaker company Popori Acoustics' top-line XR1.23 electrostats in Warsaw last year, where their deep bass greatly impressed. On Day 1 of the Pacific Audio Fest, the world-wide premiere Popori's WR1.23 w electrostats ($75,500/pair), which reside one level below the XR1.23s delivered some of the best sound I heard at the show.

Now distributed in the US by Jeff Fox's Notable Audio Products of Falls Church, VA, the Popori Acoustics WR1.23 w loudspeakers produced some of the best sound I heard at the Pacific Audio Fest. With two caveats. First, with no less than five…

JVS's Best of PAF 2023: Dutch & Dutch 8c all-in-ones

"Have you heard Dutch & Dutch? If you haven't, you must." Time and again, variations on that theme were voiced either by me or many of the attendees I chatted with at the show.

As far as I can recall, my encounter with the Dutch & Dutch 8c active loudspeakers ($15,000/pair) is the first time I have heard this company's offerings. (They've only exhibited at two shows.) I sure hope it will be far from the last.

Let's start with the music, all of which was streamed from Tidal in 16/44.1. First up, Freya Ridings' "Lost Without You" and then, at my request, the start of Mahler…

Clean Power from Kingrex Electric

On Sunday morning, I headed to the Marketplace to visit Kingrex Electric. King Rex himself, Rex Hungerford, was standing amid tables covered with a number of their modified and custom-built electrical panels and other components. He was explaining and fielding questions about what Kingrex does, which is designing specialized AC circuits and equipment to provide an audio system with absolutely the cleanest and quietest power possible. Or in website-speak, they have a singular focus, "Enriching the audio experience with clean electricity."

Hungerford explained that at the 30,000-foot level…

VAC + Von Schweikert = Wow!

Once again, VAC paired four of its amplifiers with Von Schweikert loudspeakers in a huge room sponsored by The Audio Company. Distinguished by sophisticated lighting design and fabulous sound, this system, which can fill rooms far larger than the Dutch & Dutch 8cs that so impressed me at PAF, vied with them for my personal Best of Show.

(Re: Best. Not only did I visit considerably less than half the active rooms at the show, but Brian Damkroger and I also did our best to avoid duplicate coverage of systems Stereophile covered at previous shows in 2023. In case of VAC and Von…

A Bustling Marketplace

By the time I reached PAF's large Marketplace near noon on Saturday, the place was pretty active. Saturday was the busiest day by far at PAF, with reportedly far greater attendance than at last year's show launch in the middle of summer. I left the show early on Sunday, but from what I could see, the coincidence of Day 3 with Seattle Pride put a major damper on attendance. In 2024, the third installment of PAF moves to the weekend after Labor Day.

Twin Showcases from Spatial Audio Lab with Don Sachs and Lynn Olson Design

It took two visits until this room got silent enough for me to get a handle on what was going on sound-wise. There was a lot going on, and it was not always easy to parse.

The big items of note were prototype Spatial Audio Lab open-baffle loudspeakers (price and release date TBD) that descend to 30Hz and two components from Don Sachs and Lynn Olson Design, the Statement 300B monoblock amplifiers ($18,500–$19,900/pair) and Raven preamplifier ($4600). Both products will be manufactured by Spatial Audio Lab later this year.

The monoblocks, based on Lynn Olson's circuit, employ two…

Multiple Premieres at PAF from JMF Audio and Ideon Audio

There were multiple world and North American premieres in the large room shared by JMF Audio and Ideon Audio. The exhibit was set up by the two companies' North American distributor, Michael Vamos's Audio Skies, in cooperation with Michael Farnsworth's dealership, Farnsworth Audio, of Draper, UT.

Three of the premieres were in use when I visited during a sparsely attended Saturday morning press conference: the JMF Audio HQS 7001 mono amplifiers ($77,000/pair—review forthcoming), JMF's new PRS 1.5 dual-mono preamplifier ($36,000) with upgraded power supply and transformer, and the Ideon…

The Forthcoming Baun Hydra Loudspeaker

In the hallway outside the JMF Audio/Ideon Audio room, Benno Baun Meldgaard, former speaker designer for Gamut, Raidho, and Gryphon, discussed his prototype Hydra loudspeaker. Expected in October, the cost for the for the entry-level 3-way floorstander—the smallest model in Baun's forthcoming Reference line of speakers—is projected at "around $150,000/pair."

Above the Hydra, at the top of the Reference line, will sit a 4-way model with three 14" woofers. It has a projected price of perhaps $400,000/pair. All models are designed to have a frequency response of 16 or 17Hz–30kHz, ±3dB, and a…