Driven by an Audio Alchemy DDP-2 preamp/DAC/streamer ($2499) and DPA-2 amplifier ($1499),…
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The smallest model in ELAC's Carina series, the BS243.4 ($1200/pair) represents a departure from Andrew Jones' other designs that feature a concentric tweeter/midrange driver in that it combines a folded ribbon HF unit with a 5.25" aluminum-cone woofer. A reflex design, its port fires downward from the bottom of the enclosure with a slot formed between the base and a plate underneath it. This should make the speaker easier to place in a room where it can't be used well away from the wall behind it.
The first of the two ELAC rooms I visited featured the Navis ARF-51 powered tower speaker ($4000/pair). This design from Andrew Jones, shown in my photo, features a coaxial tweeter/midrange unit and three woofers. Level controls allow the balance to be optimized—up to ±1dB for the coaxial unit, up to ±4dB for the woofers.
With source a Discovery server ($1099) and an Audio Alchemy DDP-2 D/A preamplifier, with AudioQuest Monsoon power cables and AudioQuest Water interconnects, the ARF-51s playing Count Basie's 88 Basie Street sounded rich with clean, clear high frequencies. Despite the…
Ever since Magnepan's Wendell Diller married this beautiful former Soviet spy (aka Agent G), he's been doing everything on the down low, hush-hush, totally covert. (Though I must say he does look good in dark glasses.)
This year at AXPONA he has a secret room, at the end of an obscure hall, with no signage. Agent G watches the door from a distance, and you must knock the secret knock to enter.
Once inside, it looks just like any other well-turned-out AXPONA room, but the sounds I heard from this new secret speaker were not like any other sounds I experienced at AXPONA. Think…
I admit up front I've been behind the curve in understanding/appreciating the EgglestonWorks house sound. I'm a slow learner, but whenever I finally get something—I've got it. Today, in the room sponsored by retailer Tenacious Sound (with stores in Syracuse, NY, Augusta, GA, Jacksonville, FL, and, soon, Louisville, KY), during the world premiere of EgglestonWorks' very beautiful Nico Evo standmounted speakers, I realized why so many people love this brand: They are super well-crafted, and they seem to do everything very well. They play tidy and well-sorted, but with a wild, super dynamic side…
The new (world premiere) Laufer Teknik The Note loudspeakers ($29,950/pair) are very hard to photograph because they are very thin line arrays comprised of 48 little metal drivers each in a 87"-tall, 2.5" deep, 2"-wide aluminum enclosure that's heated—it is warm to the touch. They disappeared into space while I listened. Their soundstage went out through the wall behind them while the $1600 SVS SP-4000 subwoofer pushed tight bass down through the floor to the basement. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor rattled the walls, but I couldn't "see" the speakers. Think: Skinny speakers make giant…
New, Compact, and Classic from Luxman: NeoClassico SQ-N150 Integrated Amplifier and D-N150 CD Player
If you're after an elegant classic look and a compact form factor, you'd be hard-pressed to do much better than the Luxman NeoClassic series, including the SQ-N150 integrated amplifier ($2795) and the D-N150 CD player ($2595). Both are new, and both are now shipping.
The SQ-N150 utilizes four EL84 tubes and 2 ECC83 tubes, all from JJ Electronics. It's a 10W push-pull design with three line inputs, plus an input into a MM/MC phono stage. It has a headphone output, and it utilizes a standard Luxman remote control, either the one included with the D-N150 CD player or the optional RA-25…
The North American debut of the DeBaer Saphir turntable with Reference power supply ($57,000) and DeBaer 9" Onyx tonearm with VTA adjustment ($7000) and equally pricey Top Wing Suzaku (Red Sparrow) cartridge ($16,500) was the big news in a room that paired Rockport Technologies Cygnus loudspeakers ($62,500) and high-end Argento Audio FMR silver cabling with a full line of CH Precision electronics. Focusing solely on vinyl reproduction during my time in the room, we began with one of the most overplayed audiophile classical demo tracks, the Reference Recordings version of Rimsky-Korsakov's…
An usually synergistic equipment match ruled the 16th floor room sponsored jointly by Jeff Rowland Design Group, Cardas Audio, Grand Prix Audio, and Vivid Audio. Frankly, I don't think I've ever heard Jeff Rowland's equipment produce such mellow and beautiful sound.
This time, it wasn't Rowland's integrated, but instead the Jeff Rowland Model 625 S2 Stereo Amplifier ($15,900), Corus Stereo Preamplifier ($14,900), PSU Power Storage Unit ($8200), Aeric DAC ($9800), and Conductor Phono Preamplifier. It was also my first listen—a very happy one, I might add—to Vivid's unusually shaped Kaya…
What a difference a change of venue and cabling makes. In the Nagra room at CES, the sound was silvery, glistening, open, and mesmerizing. Here, with smaller Kharma Elegance S7 loudspeakers ($18,000) and mid-priced copper-based Organic Reference cabling that uses a fiber dielectric, the sound was more toned down but no less compelling.
Listening solely to LP, we began with Reference Recordings' issue of the Chicago Pro Musica performing Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat. Contrasting colors were satisfying, and the soundstaging impressive indeed. I loved the beautiful pastels in the…
I was greeted by a familiar sound from shows past when I went into the first MoFi Distribution room on the Renaissance's third floor: a track from the All Star Percussion Ensemble LP that showed off the superb imaging and terrific transient reproduction of the Manger P2 speakers ($18,995/pair; $21,995/pair in the Rio Palisander veneer being demmed). Using a bending-wave transducer to cover everything from the lower midrange upward, supported below 340Hz by an 8" woofer with a carbon-fiber cone, the P2s sounded perhaps a bit too sweet in the top octaves when the percussion cut was followed by…