Joining the Trapeze were a trio of Fezz Audio products: a Sagita Evolution preamplifier ($2900), a 45Wpc, KT-88-based Titania amplifier ($4000), and an Equinox DAC ($3000), said by the company to be "the…
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The Kennedy Hi-Fi room was showing another product at the show that was creating a buzz: the Audiovector Trapeze loudspeaker ($25,000/pair), another product from Denmark, a country rich in high-end manufacturing. A 3-way floorstanding design, the Trapeze features a proprietary 12" high-power mid/bass driver, a 5" high-speed midrange, and an AMT (Air Motion Transformer) tweeter.
All prices CA$
I saw a real live frilled lizard at the Audiofest. It was wide-spanning and awe-inspiring and finished in Santos Rosewood. And instead of spitting saliva, it projected music. Okay, so it wasn’t an actual frilled lizard, but Coherent Loudspeakers’ 18FC–31J speakers ($72,950/pair)—not a catchy name but there's designer reasoning behind it*—which I spotted in Corby's Audio's second exhibit room, was still impressive to behold.
The speaker's features and specs are impressive, too. About the horn part, designer Frank Fazzalari explained it this way: "The horn, which is 31…
All prices listed in CA$.
Some systems are sleepers in the unassuming sense. They don't come in big parts, or take up a lot of space, or use a dozen components to pass the signal through. So you sit down to listen to them, expecting something good but forgettable, and boom! They wallop you in the face with wave after wave of dense, weighty, colorful, harmonically saturated sound that forces you to catch your breath as you try to reconcile what you're hearing with what your assumptions were.
That's what happened to me in distributor Wynn Audio's room, although I should've known…
As I leisurely strolled through the lobby of Warsaw’s Radisson Blu Sobieski two mornings before the start of Audio Show 2024, it seemed impossible that, shortly after I awoke on October 24, truckloads of gear and audio show personnel would descend on the hotel. What now was a very quiet lobby and restaurant—I rarely rode the elevator with anyone else in it—would soon be packed with distributors, dealers, company heads, press, and visitors.
Did I say “packed?” The real fun will take place October 25–27, when hallways feel at least as busy as at Munich High End. This is, after all, Europe’s…
In a video on his YouTube channel Jazz Vinyl Audiophile (footnote 1), Stereophile contributing editor Ken Micallef asks Jeffrey Catalano of High Water Sound how he manages to be so consistent—how his rooms wrangle "top 2% sound" at every audio show. The first words out of Jeffrey's mouth are "I know how to listen."
"It's one of my greatest strengths. I know what music sounds like. I just go inside the music and let it tell me how it's supposed to be alive, how it's supposed to live in that space. I know that sounds simplistic and maybe somewhat esoteric, or pretentious even—but it's not…
After 30 sides
Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee
Playing my father's favorite song, Stephen Foster's haunting "Beautiful Dreamer," sung by baritone Leslie Guinn on Songs by Stephen Foster (Nonesuch stereo LP H-71268), the SL MK II delivered enough transparency to see the usually obscured walls and floor of the recital room where "Dreamer" was recorded using "historical instruments at the Smithsonian Institute, in Washington, DC." The MK II recovered more of "Dreamer"'s moodiness than the old SL did. This track, along with "Jeanie…
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The Marantz product that was under press embargo? A speaker! Actually, two speakers: the Marantz Horizon ($3500) and its larger sibling, Marantz Grand Horizon ($5500). The speakers are intended for single-speaker wireless playback.
From an audiophile perspective, the speakers’ design leans in a lifestyle direction, but I’ve seen and heard them, and they look and sound very good. They’re also flexible placement-wise. They include DSP technology and these being designed for wide-dispersion, the sweet spot isn’t some little nook in the center of your sofa; walk around the…
An ancient connection: Monitor Audio began in 1972 when John Bartlett, founder of the innovative retail chain Audio T, introduced me to Mike Beeny, manager of an Audio T branch near Cambridge, and Mo Iqbal, a local electronics wizard. Mike suggested that Mo and I join him to start a loudspeaker company. Monitor was a fashionable hi-fi term, and I suggested we name it Monitor Audio Ltd. Each director put £300 into the company account. It was registered as a PLC at an address in Teversham, Cambridgeshire. We rented an upper floor office in a warehouse close to Mo's home, since Mo worked all…
Setup and sound
Following delivery and installation, I let the Gold 300 6Gs' temperature stabilize and subjected them to some high-power musical exertion; this loudspeaker does run in. First impressions were of a well-balanced sound with no obvious coloration or anomalous response feature—a sound so neutral and natural that they could be considered self-effacing, almost bland. With time and careful listening, the impression of blandness passed. I realized that everything was there sonically but that the usual bumps and wrinkles had been ironed out so that the speaker seemed lacking in…
Following delivery and installation, I let the Gold 300 6Gs' temperature stabilize and subjected them to some high-power musical exertion; this loudspeaker does run in. First impressions were of a well-balanced sound with no obvious coloration or anomalous response feature—a sound so neutral and natural that they could be considered self-effacing, almost bland. With time and careful listening, the impression of blandness passed. I realized that everything was there sonically but that the usual bumps and wrinkles had been ironed out so that the speaker seemed lacking in…
Sidebar 1: Bolt Tension Optimization
The Monitor Audio Gold 300 6G has four tensioning bolts, clearly visible along the back of the cabinet. These bolts serve two main purposes: to compress the gasket between the driver and the cabinet to achieve an airtight seal, and to "detune" any resonances in the driver chassis. Designer Michael Hedges cites a third, smaller benefit: additional bracing for the cabinet's back panel—though he insists this has only minimal influence on the sound. After all, the cabinet is made from thick MDF—double-thick in critical spots—and already braced internally…