Another room that stood out from the pack for its sonic excellence belonged to Canadian speaker manufacturer Acora Acoustics, which was showcasing its floorstanding SRC-2 model ($62,000/pair) on Quartz stands ($11,000). Upstream components included a two-chassis VAC Master preamp with phono stage ($65,000) and a Master 300 iQ Musicbloc stereo amplifier ($62,000). Source duties alternated between an Oracle Delphi MkVll turntable ($16,875) with Reed 2G tonearm ($5750) and Lyra Atlas Lambda cartridge ($11,995) and an Innuos Statement music server ($28,200) coupled with an MSB Discrete DAC ($…
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As is typical of their show setups, Focal Naim occupied a large, banquet-style room divvied up into different exhibits and active setups. How can you realistically gauge the sound of a demo while other demoes are playing in the background? The trick Focal Naim used, which worked like a charm, was to move our group among alternating demoes so that only one played at a time.
The first demo I heard was centered on the 100lb, dual-mono Musical Fidelity M8xi integrated amplifier with DAC ($9100). It was being fed Tidal FLAC streams from a Naim NDX 2 streamer-DAC ($11,440).…
I found the sound of the rooms at this show almost universally good, but some stood out, including the Bowers & Wilkins / Classé room, which sounded fantastic with the Tidal-streamed 16/44.1 FLAC files played for us.
The system included a Classé Delta preamp with DAC and phono stage ($14,000), a pair of 300Wpc (into 8 ohms) Classé Delta monos ($15,000 each), a pair of voluptuously contoured Bowers & Wilkins flagship 801 D4 speakers ($45,000), each flanked by a subwoofer with a 12" driver and 2000W of amplifier power ($6500 each). Cables and power conditioning were by DR…
Bryston launched two new products at this year's show that will hit the market in a week or two, according to Bryston CEO James Tanner, who was sitting in the chair next to me in the Bryston room. If what I heard in that room are any indication, Bryston is on to something big.
That gear included the lofty, svelte, 74"-tall Model T10 loudspeaker—"Model" is the name of the model—the top of the new T10 line, collaboratively designed by Tanner with Ian Colquohoun of Axiom Audio. The T10 series will replace the current T series; the 10 added to the T refers to the speaker line's tenth…
My friend ran up to me in the Mezzanine hallway. "You have to check out the Klipsch Jubilees", he said, breathlessly. "They're so big!" He leans his head back like he's looking up a skyscraper.
Of course I was going to check them out. As soon as I saw them in Capital Sound's spacious room, I thought. "They're so big!"
The Jubilee ($56,000) is top dog in Klipsch's Heritage line, but I didn't expect it to be this big. The Jubilees are both tall and wide—almost square, in fact. They looked imposing, but in their Walnut finish, spiffily imposing.
Something else I…
Quebec-based Lemay Audio was one of my best sounds of the show. At its dizzying price, it should be. If its price makes your eyes glaze over at first glance, all is not lost. I'll get to that.
First, here are the links in the playback chain: a pair of Dayton-Wright Hommage 7 speakers (introductory price $38,000/pair, $43,000/pair after that); a Tenor Audio Line 1 preamp ($200,000); a 250Wpc Tenor Audio 20th Anniversary Edition 175S amplifier ($150,000); the Baetis Audio reference 4 music server / Roon endpoint ($15,000); an iFi Audio Diablo DAC ($1350); a bevy of audio cables by…
Let me tell you a story that involves a young lady and a preteen.
I sat in a central seat in the room hosted by importer Asona and manufacturer Innuos, encountering a system fronted by a pair of slim, 6'10" Italian Fonica Internation Flag L speakers ($13,000/pair)—a two-way, boxless, isodynamic design that uses neodymium magnets and a vibrating, ultrathin Mylar film. Powering them was a Pathos InPol 3 stereo integrated amplifier ($13,000, 45Wpc into 8 ohms) The digital front end was an upsampling Cen.grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe ($7800), from China, and an Innuos Statement music server…
Although it may seem like it sometimes, not all the exhibitors at an audio show play the same typical audiophile fare, which sounds great but rarely challenges the power and dynamic reserves of their systems. Mark Jones, of Ontario-based retailer Audio by Mark Jones, is one of those exceptions to the rule. The first track he played for me was Led Zeppelin's chord-crunching, drum-whacking "Moby Dick," at high volume.
And that was Mark's point, wasn't it? To show how his system could play big, hard, loud rock music while remaining cool under pressure. And it did. Listening to "Moby…
The second demo I heard in Focal Naim's spacious, hall-sized room was centered around the brand new Naim NSC 222 streaming preamplifier ($12,000) from the company's New Classic Series. This is big news in the realm of Naim, though it doesn't entirely replace Naim's last Classic Series, which was launched … 50 years ago! The New Classic Series also includes the NSC 222 preamplifier (without streaming), the NAP 250 power amplifier, and the NPX 300 power supply. You might say the NSC 222 replaced Naim's Statement NAC S1 preamp ($129,999), but only at this show: The NAC S1 was supposed to…
I considered it an exciting discovery. It was an exciting discovery, in the rarefied world of rock'n'roll historiography: namely, that the great New Orleans, later Los Angeles, drummer Earl Palmer was responsible for one of the major paradigm shifts in 20th century American culture: the rock'n'roll beat. The aha moment came when Earl and I were preparing his 1999 oral autobiography, Backbeat: Earl Palmer's Story. Long before my cantankerous interlocutor (Earl ran hot) unspooled his amazing life story for me, a running interview that swallowed the better part of my 1990s, I had come to believe…