search
Constellation Audio’s impressive system—Cygnus Media Server/DAC ($38,000), Altair 2 preamplifier ($78,000), and Hercules 2 monoblock amplifiers ($180,000/pair), as well as MIT cabling and Shunyata power treatment—fed the MartinLogan Neolith beauties ($80,000/pair) with enough power to make deep percussion sound real in the next room.
Moderately Priced Speakers. That's my assignment for this year's CES show report—as well as moderately priced turntables and other phono equipment—Moderate being defined this time as priced from $4000/pair to $18,000/pair. Personally, I have trouble considering $18,000 speakers as being moderately priced, but this designation should not be viewed as anything but a convenient way of subdividing the task of reporting, so that Herb Reichert, reporting on "Low-Priced (defined as under $4000/pair), Jason Victor Serinus, writing about "High-Priced" speakers (above $18,000/pair), and myself have…
At $15,995/pair, the Tempus III is the top-of-the-line from Ryan Speakers. Their speakers have impressed me before as offering high quality for the price, but perhaps not world-beaters. The Tempus III is different. It uses proprietary drivers, including a new beryllium-dome tweeter, two side-firing woofers, and a midbass that covers the range from 100Hz to 350Hz. The bass extends to 25Hz, –3dB. While I prefer to avoid making pronouncements based on limited listening at a show—it seems to me that with the Tempus III Ryan Speakers (heard in a system with Arunder music server, PS Audio…
Getting near the top of the $4k–$18k range, at $16,500/pair is the Magico S1 (Mk.II)—which is actually the lowest-priced speaker from Magico. Although it looks similar to the original S1, the Mk II has a newly designed 1" diamond-coated Beryllium diaphragm tweeter and a new 7" mid/bass driver incorporating Magico's Nano-Tec cone material. As was the case for the Mk.I, the enclosure of the Mk.I is formed from a single piece of extruded aluminum, but with a new massive top plate machined to a 3D convex shape, and a thicker base plate.
Partnered with topnotch source and electronics (Berkeley…
The Monitor Audio Platinum II involves some major improvements in driver technology. Dean Hartley told me that they had moved a good way towards completion of these changes when the original Platinum Series speakers were introduced, but they felt that further improvements were possible, and they wanted to be absolutely sure they got it right, so they played it safe by going with the existing technology.
Hartley is particularly proud of what they achieved in reducing distortion. He feels that speakers are generally weak in this area, so that we may have sources and playback electronics…
With two years in research and development, Monitor Audio's Platinum Series II involves—according to Dean Hartley, Monitor Audio's Technical Director—"advances in every area of design: electrical, mechanical, magnetic, acoustic and aesthetic." When I reviewed the original Platinum Series PL200 in 2010, I liked it a lot. When I first heard that Monitor Audio had an upgrade of the Platinum series, I made a note to myself in my CES planning to be sure to visit the Monitor Audio room and listen to the new speakers.
I was not disappointed. Allowing for different listening environments,…
Taking a photo of a single speaker for a show report presents a challenge, especially if the speaker is narrow and tall. In the case of the new MartinLogan EM-ESL X, the flagship of the ElectroMotion series (at $3995/pair, I make it close enough to $4000 be part of my territory), I solved the problem by enlisting the help of the uncommonly photogenic Erin Phillips, Communications Manager for MartinLogan and Paradigm.
The only things I am sure about in the current and future state of high-end audio are: listening to and collecting LPs has only just begun, and, listening with super-quality headphones, desktop speakers and wireless speakers has also only just begun. By "begun" I mean each of these technologies will continue to evolve exponentially in terms of how good they will sound and how many people will be listening. I think a major Audio Renaissance has already begun and I believe that Dynaudio is one of the companies leading on the charge loudspeaker front.
Dynaudio's new Xeo 2 ($1599/pair) is…
Sometimes, even in audio, numbers do speak for themselves. I reviewed the Rogue Sphinx ($1395) almost two years ago—and still, everyday I like it more. The Sphinx continues to deliver more quality sonics (into a wider variety of speaker loads) per dollar than any amp I ever knew. Now they appear to have accomplished the same thing again—this time it is a beautiful little $1695 preamplifier called the RP-1.
Besides looking like a $5k preamp, the RP-1 played music like a $10K preamp. The RP-1 has a MM/MC phono stage, so for CES, Rogue's principle owner/designer, Mark O'Brien had it…
Everywhere I go I hear about Andrew Jones the speaker design wizard, and how suddenly, this "trending" new combination of established manufacturing smarts (ELAC America) and engineering magic is making high-value speakers at astonishingly low prices. (I had just submitted a review of the ELAC Debut B6 for the May issue of Stereophile before boarding the plane for Vegas.)
Before all the aramid cones had even broken in on the Debut Series, Elac America has introduced a new series called the "Uni-Fi"—which consists of a floor stander (the UF5), a bookshelf model (UB5), and a center channel—…