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Mola Mola Makua Linestage with DAC

One of the great pleasures of CES is discovering new music. People come from all over the world, and often bring surprising choices.

Such was the case when distributor/retailer GTT Audio's Bill Parish asked what I'd like to listen to, and I turned it back over to him. I'm not sure who made the choice, but between Parish and Mola Mola's Bruna Putzeys, who had walked over, a track from Christine and the Queens emerged. New to me, and I've already ordered the disc on Amazon.

I was here to check out the Makua Linestage ($11,740) from Mola Mola which can include an optional DAC ($6,…

Bryston BDP-2 Music Player Update and BDA-3 DAC

First, Bryston reminded show-goers that earlier this year they updated their BDP-2 Music Player (reviewed here by Michael Lavorgna at AudioStream.com and Larry Greenhill here and the box on top in the photo above) with a new "Integrated Audio Device" or "IAD".

Bryston claims that the new IAD delivers improved specifications and replaces the current two-piece third-party sound card and SPDIF interface module. All new BDP-2 players are currently shipping with the new IAD installed, and legacy BDP-2 consumers have an option to retrofit to the new device for $500.

Below the BDP-2 is…

Graham Nash Visits Mofi in the Venetian

Though not a listening stop, we had to say hello to the guys from Mobile Fidelity including (L-R in the photo above) Rob Loverde, Shawn Britton and Jonathan Derda. Turns out Shawn has mastered some of Graham's work, so they immediately set to talking about the new album and the possibility of MoFi getting their hands on it.

Afterwards, Nash dived into the bins and picked up several albums, primarily early Bob Dylan remasters. I asked him if he still had a turntable setup and he responded "not right now, but I'm in a new apartment and plan to get one."

Graham Nash Visits Chord Electronics in the Venetian

[Note: click here for background on this project and here for how we set up the equipment.]

Chord Electronics had their suite divided into two rooms at CES, the main room as shown in the photo above and the smaller back room where all the headphone listening was taking place. Chord had their Mojo and Hugo TT DACs set up with a variety of Audeze headphones as reported earlier.

But in the main room was their latest DAVE DAC (which I'll be profiling in a later post) as well as some of their best electronics. The system was topped off with one of my personal favorites, the Vienna…

Audio Alchemy and TAD

The surprising combination of the superb-sounding (but prototype) Technical Audio Devices Laboratories (TAD) loudspeakers with the wonderfully affordable Audio Alchemy electronics manifested some penetratingly beautiful Roy Orbison music.

These good-looking TAD prototypes are designed to become a more affordable (under $15,000/pair) version of TAD's popular and highly regarded Compact Evolution One loudspeakers ($26,000/pair with stands). This new design has been nicknamed the "White Carat Diamond," and is a three-way design incorporating a new 90mm concentric midrange/HF driver.

…

Morel's Floorstanders

I discovered the Morel Octave 6 stand-mounted speakers ($2500/pair) at the 2015 CES. I liked them so much I wrote a review for our February 2016 issue. I spent a large number of hours—days, weeks, even months—listening with them. I thought they sounded liquid and exciting and musically provocative—but perhaps a bit over-saturated in the 50–120Hz region.

This time, Morel's USA distributor, Nir Paz, was demonstrating the bigger Octave 6 Limited Edition floorstanders ($6000/pair). He was driving them with the new 250Wpc (into 8 ohms) Hegel H360 integrated amplifier ($5700).

I was a…

A New Amplifier from Hegel

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.

The new 250Wpc Hegel H360 looks and sounds like the H160's bigger…

PrimaLuna: the Warmth of Tubes?

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…

Thiel Impresses

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…

Nagra's Classic Integrated

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.