I wish I could tell you about the Linn system in this room, but both times I tried to enter, Steven Lester was in the middle of a long rap. Lester's video components always provide some of the most fun and unexpected treats at a show, and usually result in packed rooms. That was certainly the case the first time I came by.
Grant Fidelity, PureAudioProject, and Mundorf won my Best Slap-Silly Dance Music of Any Show Award with Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines." Believe me, it was no contest. It was also no contest between the two amps in the room, the rockin' Psvane TS845 SET…
Greek actress Melina Mercouri may have abstained on Sunday, but for audiophiles and distributors, slow slow Sunday is the day when systems are at their best. It's also the time when attendance dips markedly, and visitors can often spend all the time they want in rooms without preventing others from joining in the fun.
Sunday, for Stereophile, began in the larger rooms on the 2nd floor of the Westin SFO. In the first I visited, Pass Labs mated its INT-60 integrated amplifier ($9000) and XP-15 phono preamp ($3800) with a modified Technics SP10 Mk.II turntable fitted with a My Sonic Lab…
How to explain this one? At other shows, the most problematic rooms for an exhibitor to control are usually the large rooms on the ground level, where a combination of air walls, air-conditioning ducts, wall composition, and secrets pacts between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (which, in this case, was literally across the street from the Westin SFO) can defeat any and all attempts at good sound. But at both the California Audio Show and the last T.H.E. Show Newport Beach, most of the big rooms on the ground floor produced excellent sound.
The first additions to a "Best Sound at CAS6"…
Yes, boys and girls, there was yet one more distinctly superior system at CAS6. In addition to Bricasti, Elac/Audio Alchemy, and the two systems from AudioVision SF that included a varying combination of Dynaudio/YG Acoustics/Bel Canto Black/Pear Audio/Nordost and more, Michael Woods' Elite Audio Systems of San Francisco Kharma/CH Precision/Viola/Spiral Groove/ Primare/IsoTek and more system blew me away. Adding to his triumph is the fact that, on Thursday evening, a frustrated Michael (pictured on the right next to Kevin Wolff of Vana Ltd. and, on the left, Allen Perkins of Spiral Groove)…
It's a rare day when famed amplifier designer Nelson Pass leaves his bench to deliver a seminar. It's even rarer when that seminar is geared toward consumers rather than what he calls "specialists." In fact, at the start of his talk, Nelson confessed that after almost 50 years building amplifiers, his CAS seminar was his first ever tailored specifically toward consumers.
Hearing Nelson say that may have caused many of the hundreds of audiophiles in the packed seminar room to breathe a sigh of relief, and inspired hope that they would actually understand what he had to say. It was, after…
The California Audio Show may have been smaller than in years past, but its proportion of excellent sounding systems—6 out of 32 or so, if you count exhibit rooms that had more than one system in play—was quite high. For this reason alone, I believe the show offered great value for attendees. And it also offered some great views of San Francisco International Airport, as this shot, taken through my 7th-story hotel window, attests.
Here is the word on show attendance from show organizer, Constantine Soo:
The final number is 2300 attendees.
This year, with PonoMusic helping…
The B&W DM-6 is the second "phase-coherent" speaker system we have tested. (The first was the Dahlquist DQ-10 in January 1977.) From what we see in the latest ads from the US, England, and Japan, there will be more forthcoming. One speaker manufacturer who has been around for a long time and is currently pushing his own "phased" systems observed that many of his competitors' designs are being introduced merely because "phase response" sells these days. Yet the truth of the matter is that the experts still do not agree as to whether linear phase has any effect on reproduced sound.
The…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Dynamic, three-way, floorstanding loudspeaker with adjustable high and midrange level and low-range contour control. Drive-units: ¾" dome tweeter, 6" Kevlar-cone midrange unit, 10" Bextrene-cone woofer. Crossover frequencies: 500Hz, 5kHz. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Maximum amplifier power: 350W; system fused for 50W watts sinewave, tweeter fused for 72W sinewave.
Dimensions: 36.6" total H by 16.2" W'by 15" D.
Serial numbers of review samples: 3555 & 3556.
Price; $1190/pair (1977); no longer available (2015).
Manufacturer: B&W…
For many years, I've been a fan of the loudspeakers made by the British audio company Wilson Benesch. Their speakers definitely have their own personality. I first reviewed a Wilson Benesch loudspeaker while a columnist and reviewer for The Abso!ute Sound, and how that came about was amusing. As WB's then US importer was packing up his exhibit at the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show, by mistake he put labels with my address on them on the boxes containing the show samples of WB's revolutionary A.C.T. One, the first loudspeaker to have a curved carbon-fiber enclosure, a sloping top, and a…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Vented two-way stand-mounted loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" soft-dome tweeter, 7" mid/woofer, 7" Assisted Bass Radiator (ABR or passive radiator). Crossover frequency: 5kHz (first-order bass rolloff, second-order tweeter rolloff). Frequency range: 45Hz–24kHz. Voltage sensitivity: 87dB. Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Minimum impedance: 4 ohms. Power-handling capacity: 200W, peak unclipped program. Minimum power required: 50W.
Dimensions: 12.8" high by 8" wide by 11.2" deep. Internal volume: 10 liters. Weight: 22 lbs.
Finishes: Natural Cherry Stain…
