The new 250Wpc Hegel H360 looks and sounds like the H160's bigger…
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Last year, I raved-reviewed the Hegel H160 integrated amplifier. It was probably the best all-around integrated amp I studied. I laughed that it had only two analog inputs but six assorted digital ones. I didn't laugh while the H160 grabbed every loudspeaker in my house by its cojones and gently forced the frightened cones to submit. Maybe it was the black mask faceplate or maybe was Hegel's SoundEngine technology. I don't know, but unquestionably, the H160's 150Wpc (into 8 ohms) had a very special way with speaker cones.
I have heard the expression, "The warmth of tubes," forever. Few among us have experienced as many different tube amps as this humble prattler and I swear: I have (almost) never experienced that so-called "warmth." In my experience, what tube amps usually do (that solid state amps usually don't) is reproduce small-scale and micro-dynamic information (they are sensitive and feminine) that gets lost in the hard-thumping maleness of transistor amps. For me, a good tube amp will flesh out and illuminate the images, soundstage, and hall sounds of a recording better than its denser masculine…
The Thiel TM3 loudspeakers ($3500/pair) looked extremely nice—but it was hard to listen. All I could think about was that girl on the poster's lips and the shadows on her cheeks. The cut angles on the TM3s seemed to match her face. And the flowers—I can't remember the last time I saw flowers in a CES room.
Thiel was demonstrating their new TM3s and Smart Sub 1.12s ($4500–$5000) driven by Devialet's 120 amp ($6495) and, when I finally reeled in my lucid reverie, I noticed they were playing Sweet Baby James Taylor and he was sounding gentle and sweet—better than I ever remember him…
Matthieu Latour, Nagra's Marketing Director, spent time showing me the Swiss company's new Classic Integrated Amplifier ($19,450). Both Nagra's Classic Integrated Amplifier and Classic stereo power amplifier deliver 100Wpc into 8 ohms and are strikingly similar, but differ in that the integrated unit has 3 RCA inputs and 1 XLR input and cannot be bridged. It uses a solid-state circuit preamplifier section. The Classic Integrated amplifier will be available in May, 2016.
Pass Laboratories celebrated its 25th Anniversary in business by introducing its HPA-1 headphone amplifier ($3500). The circuitry is a two-stage CFA topology using cascaded ultra-low noise Toshiba JFETs driving complementary Fairchild power MOSFETs running in class-A.
Pass Laboratories designer Wayne Colburn showed me their new INT-60 Integrated amplifier ($9000). Rated at 60Wpc, the amplifier uses the same heatsinks, power supplies, and output stages as the Pass Point 8 power amplifiers. As usual, the Pass Laboratory products were on static display, so I was not able to sample the sound of this new integrated amplifier.
Finished in Lancaster Grey, the Quad PA-One headphone amplifier is a full-tube design, with a built-in DAC.
Quad electrostatic loudspeakers have been unavailable in the United States retail market for the past few years because there has been no importer. In the past 12 months, MoFi Distribution has stepped up to develop a dealer network and provide service. As a long-time Quad 989 owner, this was music to my ears.
Jonathan Derda, Mo-Fi's National Sales and Marketing Manager, described the new service center in Fairfax, Virginia that will service all vintages and versions of the loudspeaker, including ESL-57s, ESL-63s, 988s, 989s, and more recent models. Leaning on a new, 42" high, $11,999/…
Scientific Audio Electronics (SAE), founded in 1967, has been out of business for decades. Recently, Morris Kessler of ATI, manufacturers of the ATI and Theta brands,helped restore the company. At CES, Bill Skaer, National Director of Sales, presented the firm's latest amplifier, the 125 lb, SAE 2 HP-D Display version ($19,995).
The front panel features a huge digital display that shows either two analog meters, one stacked on top of the other, or a real-time spectrum analyzer, also showing both channels . The design is a dual-mono, fully differential, full-balanced amplifier…
VTL Amplifiers, Inc. introduced the $3000 TL-2.5i Performance Preamplifier at CES 2016. It features 6 line inputs, an optional $2000, internally retrofitable phono stage, two pairs of outputs, and a tape loop.
Released as a new and improved version of a previous model, both line stage and phono stages have been upgraded with audiophile parts. Its internal phono stage supports both MM and MC cartridges, and features a low-noise hybrid JFET design and a user-selectable MC step-up transformer option for lowest noise. Alternatively, the user can use an active gain stage for MC cartridges. The…