In New York, we have at least nine high-end audio dealerships, and each is radically different in vibe and product roster. At each one I learn about and experience a completely different musical-aesthetic viewpoint. I believe this type of direct contact with…
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I believe deeply in the importance of bricks-and-mortar audio dealers. I see audio salons as regional pilgrimage sites. I see them as places to hang out, educate myself, and dream about how perfect life will be when I get that new tonearm and cartridge I'm lusting for. They are also the best place to buy perfectionist audio.
At 10am sharp on Friday, energized with a belly full of scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, and a regrettable amount of watery hotel "coffee," I set out to make good use of the designated press-only hours. My assignments: the 2nd floor, a few seminars of my choosing, Classic Album Sundays, and a last, mysterious task—anything else of interest.
Oddly, this instead turned into a good full hour of wandering in and out of vacant and/or unprepared rooms. In my hyper-caffeinated state, the complete abandonment made me begin to wonder if I had tripped and fallen onto the set of The Shining. Around…
Mmmmm
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Forgive the alliteration overdose, but that was my reaction to Peachtree Audio and Zu Audio making good sound together. Peachtree's David Solomon, operating an iPad while jacked up on enough caffeine to enable a mouse to fly to the moon on its own steam, seemed caught by surprise as non-industry showgoers appeared in his room during the time reportedly reserved for the press. (What was going on with that, folks at the RMAF registration desk?) Packaging was still strewn about, and this security-minded veteran of both a New York junkie neighborhood and an Oakland barrio had to move…
Before me, the name Auralic. Inside the room, that company's new Polaris wireless streaming amplifier ($3800), paired with Ryan R630 loudspeakers ($5000/pair). Outputting 120Wpc into 8 ohms and 180 into 4 ohms, the 10 lb Auralic Polaris supports PCM up to 384/32 and DSD up to 256. Containing a wireless streaming unit, optional internal music storage, DAC, phono stage, preamp, and amp, it does almost everything but wash windows. Happily, you won't need it for that, because I found it delivered a clear as well as nice-sounding rendition of Beethoven's Eroica, as preserved on a 24/88.2 file…
It was one of those walk-in-the-door, "Ah ha!" moments: Instantly, I got a very good feeling about not only the looks of Brinkmann Audio's Nyquist DAC ($18,000) but also the quality of the work it was doing in the MQA room. The Nyquist really caught my eye and my ear.
Although they're more boring looking, high-end DACs remind me of analog (phono) front ends, because of the manner in which they approach their job and the diverse quality of the work they do. It is crazy how different each of them can sound, but when they're exceptionally good—or exceptionally bad—the differences between…
The most astoundingly-good-sound-for-the-component-size exhibit of the 47 or so I visited at RMAF 2016 sang in the larger-than-average hotel room occupied by SOtM of Korea and Boenicke of Switzerland. It wasn't the least expensive of the excellent-sounding systems I encountered—that honor goes to Peachtree/Zu—but it sure was the most compact and three-dimensional, as well as one of the most neutral and pleasing.
The remarkably compact Boenicke W5 Special Edition loudspeakers ($4500/pair) were fed by an entire SOtM array, including cabling, with the addition of a Nordost entry-level Purple…
Retailer Audio Den (2845 Middle Country Rd, Lake Grove, NY 11755) is holding an evening with John Atkinson, Editor-in Chief of Stereophile magazine, on Saturday, October 15, starting at 5pm. Not only has John been writing about audio for 40 years, he has engineered, produced, mastered, and played on more than 40 commercially released recordings. He will be discussing how recordings are made and how this affects what you hear on your own system. There will be illustrations from both John's own recordings as well as commercial recordings, and each session will last about an hour including a Q…
In the room shared by NAD and PSB, I got to meet the latter's Paul Barton and listen intimately to Francis Albert Sinatra. The little PSB Imagine Mini loudspeakers ($749/pair + $299 for stands) put lots of well-formed vocal energy into a rather large room—enough to let Sinatra be Ol' Blue Eyes while I closed my eyes and dreamed. Frank and Paul made such a nice vibe together—one that was surely enhanced by the affordable but sophisticated, downright overachieving , Paul Barton-designed Imagine Minis, plus NAD's 368 integrated amplifier-DAC ($899), C 568 CD player ($699), and C 556 turntable ($…
My beat at the 13th RMAF was the 7th and 11th floors of the Marriott Tower, so to kick off my reporting, my first room on the 7th floor was Dynaudio USA. Featured in the system was Dynaudio's new two-way Contour 20 loudspeakers ($5000/pair). Mounted on Stand 6 stands ($500/pair), the Contour 20s were driven by an Aurender N100 server ($2499) feeding a dCS Debussy DAC ($11,999) and the new Octave V110 SE integrated amplifier ($8000) via Cardas Clear Beyond interconnects and Cardas Clear speaker cables. On passive display was the Model 30 tower ($7500/pair) and both of the new models feature…
Day 2 began with more of floor 2. My first stop: the Eclipse room.
Before you ask—yes, the speakers look very much like you would expect them to. As in: if you merged an eclipse and a speaker, the result would closely resemble that of an Eclipse TD510ZMK2 speaker. (For size reference, they're like a smaller second cousin to the Devialet Phantom.)
Inside the room: Eclipse TD510ZMK2 Speakers ($5,990/pair) and Eclipse TD520SW Subwoofers ($7,200/pair) powered by a Luxman L-590AX Integrated 30 Wpc Amplifier ($8,490) with a mix CD (courtesy of Philip O'Hanlon, as these are all…