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Gilad Tiefenbrun, Managing Director of Linn Products (above), along with the Scottish company's Technical Director Keith Robertson, gave me a convincing demonstration of Linn's Exakt system. Like Edgar Choueiri's Bacch-SP, this powerful DSP-based system decouples the loudspeakers from the perceived sounds. It does so, not to create an immersive, binaural soundfield, but rather to eliminate problems with the behavior of the speakers' drive-units, correct errors in the speakers' performance as a whole, and optimize their relationship with a room’s acoustics. According to Linn, "Exakt pushes the…
As I was leaving the Venetian after closing up the Stereophile room on the last day of CES, I bumped into AudioQuest's Steve Silberman in the elevator. "I've got one left, take it," he said and handed me the little USB thingie in my photograph. "It's going to cost $49 and will be available in the spring."
I have been chained to my desk since then, working on this CES report, so I haven't had the time to do any serious listening. But I refer you to AudioStream's Michael Lavorgna here, where he writes "According to AudioQuest, Jitterbug is a dual-function USB line conditioner. . .the…
Is it an "implosive sound center" that offers, in Devialet's words, "The Best Sound in the World—1000 Times Superior to Current Systems," or is it an overblown puffer fish? Such thoughts crossed my mind as a young, computer-happy Devialeter, standing behind a curtain, fed techno music to the Phantom ($1990) and Silver Phantom ($2390), whose side panels in turn pumped in and out as it flooded a large suite in the Mirage with the driving beat of increasingly loud music that, if pumped through the water, might lead a poor puffer to puff its last.
Phantom reportedly takes advantage of "three…
"What kills me is that in my own showroom I have the same Wilson Alexia loudspeakers that Nagra is using, but they sound better in their set-up, and they aren't even using room treatment," lamented a retailer whose identity shall forever remain unspoken. What better compliment can one pay to Nagra's forthcoming HD amplifiers?
In April, Nagra introduces their Classic Line 120Wpc stereo amplifier (the smaller metal box in the photo), whose price maybe in the $14,500 range. A replacement for the current MSA model, which will be discontinued, it's a MOSFET design with as few output devices as…
In the first system to which I took a serious listen at CES, Alon Wolf could have made no more major a statement than by pairing his Magico Q7 loudspeakers ($185,000/pair) and new active QSub-18 ($36,000) with Soulution 701 monoblock amplifiers ($150,000/pair), Soulution 720 preamp (discontinued—the current 725 line stage is $50,000), Berkeley Audio Design Reference DAC ($16,000), Baetis Audio music server, Vovox cabling from Switzerland, Magico MRack ($50,000), and superb Magico QPOD equipment supports.
The QSub-18, which weighs 350 lbs, contains two 18" drivers, and employs either a…
What better way to end a day than to move from Magico/Soulution/Baetis/BAD/Vovox to a system in which dCS's digital statement, the ne plus ultra Vivaldi four-stack marvel (something like $108,496 plus all those cables to power and connect it), Dan D'Agostino Momentum monoblock amplifiers ($55,000/pair), Transparent MM2 cabling, and the new Rockport Cygnus loudspeakers ($62,500/pair). The sound was very different than Magico's on the next floor of the Mirage, and equally extraordinary.
Having usually heard dCS paired with Wilson Audio, it was a nice change of pace to discover it sounding…
With its forthcoming BHK Signature 250 amplifier ($7500), PS Audio's Paul McGowan (above) has stepped outside his own self-imposed price point box. By inviting his longtime friend and colleague, Bascom H. King (Constellation, Infinity, Infinity class-A, Conrad-Johnson, and Marantz), to create his magnum opus without regard to price, his goal was to make, in his own words, "one of the top five amplifiers in the world."
Hyperbole check. In earlier blogs, I wrote about D'Agostino and Soulution monoblocks that cost $55,000 and $150,000/pair, respectively. King intends to match these with a…
For this year's CES show blog, in addition to reporting on new/interesting products, our plan was to ask manufacturers for tips on the installation and optimization of their products, echoing the how-to theme of the articles in Stereophile's 2015 Special "Recommended Components" issue, the cover of which is pictured above with John Atkinson. (This special issue will be available on newsstands and in bookstores next week.)
The results were interesting, with considerable similarities, but also some differences. Sandy Gross of GoldenEar Technologies suggested that for optimal imaging the…
Photo: John Atkinson
On one level, this was just "another CES." The barrage of humanity, traffic, flashing lights, cigarette smoke, hawkers, gawkers, noise masquerading as music, and the ever-present Las Vegas Strip above was such that, as I entered the Venetian on the last day, all I could think of was the promise that, before the night was over, I would be back amongst the trees, silence, and rejuvenating peace of our home in Port Townsend, WA.
But on a deeper level, the "high-performance" audio displays in and around CES 2015 signaled anything but business as usual. Take a look…
Richard Vandersteen points to the detailed improvements to his flagship Model Seven speaker, which produced one of my best sounds at the 2015 CES. The major change is to the tweeter and its environment. Still using a unique balsa/alloy sandwich dome, this has been brought into better alignment of its acoustic center with that of the midrange unit, which has in turn meant changing the design of the grille to optimize its acoustic environment. This has resulted in less hand-adjustment of the crossover, to give a more easily achieved consistency in manufacturing. Other changes to the subwoofer…