There is a CD slot on the front, for ripping discs and grabbing meta data à la Sooloos, and a slick touchscreen on top for controlling the various processes (in addition to an app that runs…
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Astell&Kern calls their new server an "MQS Network Audio Player", where MQS stands for "Master Quality Sound". WIth all the talk at the show about Meridian's new MQA technology, at first I confused it for "Master Quality Authenticated" and did a double take. Nonetheless, A&K's new product is quite a stunner as presented both on a stand with amplifier and as shown here, on a table top by itself.
It's close to 55 years since David Wilson built his first loudspeaker, and 34 years since he developed a method to measure time-domain differences. It was also in 1981, the same year that he received a patent for time-domain driver adjustability, that Wilson Audio released the game-changing Wilson Audio Modular Monitor loudspeaker or the WAMM.
In two small, private presentations in the Mirage, Dave Wilson joined several other indispensible members of his team—his son Daryl and wife Sheryl Lee, as well as Peter McGrath and John Giolas—to present a jaw-dropping mock up of the proposed,…
Incorporating noise-cancelling geometries, DH Labs' forthcoming flagship Corona power cord (approx. $850/1.5m) is triple-shielded. The company's Greg Hovsepian notes that the cord, which makes "proprietary use of 1386 individual strands of silver-coated copper, is manufactured in the US.
Hovsepian is equally proud of his new headphone cables ($150–$350). Boasting DH Labs custom connectors, available in five different terminations for "all" brands, the headphone cables contain silver-coated OFCC copper. The buzz on these otherwise silent cables is quite positive.
MyCamera was positioned too close to Micromega's MyWorld cabling to take a focused picture. So let's let the cable do the talking:
"I'm speaker cable, and I cost $199 for a three meter pair. I'm silver-plated copper with gold-plated terminations—either spades or bananas—and I work really well. My sister USB cable costs $49, and also has gold-plated terminations. Brother RCA cables comes in 0.3 and 1.25 meter lengths, cousin coax digital costs $59 for 1.25 meters, and bulk rolls of cabling from the compulsive eating side of the family are on the way. Together, we deliver a far more focused…
Yup, they grow 'em big in Pasadena. Stage III's Leviathan power cord ($14,500/1.5m) has much larger silver-palladium conductors than the previous flagship model. Each leg has its own dedicated cabling, wrapped in a custom-made housing. The Leviathan can pass up to 80 amps of current for the biggest and most power hungry amps.
Two components in one, Isotek's Mosaic Genesis ($11,995) is, first of all, a power regenerator. Converting power to DC, and claimed to produce a perfectly clean, time-correct sinewave without sending noise back into the wall, it sends power to outlets isolated via a bus bar.
"The name Genesis signifies that it completely severs from the AC in the wall," distributor Kevin Wolff of Vana, Ltd. told Stereophile.
Strictly for source components, it includes three outlets for CD, phono, preamps, etc. The unit also contains dedicated outlets for amplifiers. Dropping the operating…
Thanks to Brian Ackerman of Aaudio Imports, Finite Elemente's equipment supports and racks have returned to the US. market. All of the company six different Cera equipment supports models ($230–$820/set of 3, depending upon model) uses ceramic bearings, and, save for the aluminum shell of the entry-level Ceraball, stainless steel housings to isolate equipment from vibrations. Far more than isolators, all products are claimed to act as mechanical diodes, drawing energy out of components.
Lower level models have a single bearing; the more costly supports have three. The size of the models…
I hope not, because it's (presumably indigestible) vibration-damping material from Scotland. Distributed by TWN Audio/Video's Santy Oropel, the Black Ravioli line includes the Big Riser ($190/each), which goes under heavy components such as amplifiers; the Big Pad ($90/each) for preamps, DACs and the like; the Small Pad (4 for $300), which either adheres to a light component's chassis or serves as a footer; and the iMac Vibration Controller ($250—not shown), a base complete with feet that goes under a tablet.
A year after they were first announced, WBT CEO Wolfgang B. Thoerner is preparing to release his organic carbon Nano Gen connectors at the 2015 Munich show. As opposed to customary metal connectors, Nano Gen's carbon is claimed to transport signals faster because it does so in only two dimensions, while metal transport transports signals in three dimensions.
"Metal has the skin effect, which sends signals up and down in an extraneous direction," Thoerner explained. "Carbon has no skin effect." The connectors, which will be available through local dealers, can be used to retrofit existing…
I first heard the King Audio Limited (also known as KingSound) Prince electrostatic loudspeaker several years ago at the Montreal show, and was impressed by the transparency of its sound, which reminded me of the KLH Nines that I used to own. I've heard it, as well as the higher-end King model, several times since then, but my impressions have been variable. I remember one time at T.H.E. Show at the Flamingo in Las Vegas, which had the Kings at one end of a large room and the Prince at the other, a setup that did neither speaker any favors.
But the Prince, which has evolved into the…