As I filed last month's Re-Tales article, it…
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In last month's Re-Tales, I discussed what was happening on the vacuum-tube landscape, especially tube shortages resulting from Russia's war on Ukraine and its consequences for trade. Tube availability is, of course, a small concern compared to continuing Russian atrocities and the resulting suffering of Ukrainians. Still, it's a question tubed-electronics lovers and makers must grapple with, and we're a hi-fi magazine. So: If that Russian tube supply is curtailed or boycotted, what are the alternatives for manufacturers and individual buyers?
In their second, considerably larger room at the Long Beach Show, AV Luxury Group International pulled out all the stops. Immediately catching eye and ear were Raidho Acoustics TD 3.8 3-way loudspeakers in Walnut finish ($117,000/pair). With a nominal impedance of 6 ohms, these babies can throw a huge, enveloping soundstage from as little as 50Wpc amplification.
Doing the honors on that score were the Margules U-280 SC 30th Anniversary Limited Edition class-A triode monoblocks ($10,000/pair) whose 50Wpc drove the Raidho TD 3.8s with aplomb. A Margules SF-220 class-A tube…
Last year in Long Beach, PBN Audio's Peter Noerbaek was so eager to show what his humongous speakers could accomplish without distortion that he cranked up the volume far louder than the New York Subway System at its worst. As I thanked my lucky stars that I was some distance away from the huge room's doorway when the eruption occurred, a member of T.H.E. Show staff came running.
"The glass walls on our office are shaking!" he yelled, as he made show policy clear. Only after that did I feel safe to enter.
This time, perhaps the fear of God or Ray Kimber's beneficent presence…
This was a system tailored for mellow listening. In a room large enough for a Presidential Ball, timbres were spot on through Voss Luxury Audio gear. Whether on Dominique Fils-Aimé's oft-encountered "Birds," Stacey Kent's "The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain," The Bahamas' "Any Place," or an LP of vocalist Terry Evans and Dutch guitarist Hans Theessink performing "Got to Keep Moving," vocals sounded great and their accompaniment consistently smooth, laid back, and inviting.
According to John Voss, Voss components are assembled in Santa Barbara and offer extremely high bandwidth and…
Once the volume was turned up, the fourth movement of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade filled the large space with exciting sound. Distinguished by appropriate bite and a solid midrange, the system also excelled on Ray Charles and Norah Jones' "Here We Go Again."
Aaudio Import's Brian Ackerman, whom I have encountered at shows for well over 20 years, noted that the Ypsilon Phaethon SE Integrated Amp ($52,000) with "bridged single-ended" output stage has silver-wound transformers. Outputting 110Wpc into 8 ohms and 170 into 4, it joined Ypsilon's tubed DAC 1000SE ($52,000), whose discrete,…
In a large, exceedingly difficult-to-tame room, Acora Acoustics SRC-2 loudspeakers ($37,000/pair) did a superb job with voices. I sat mesmerized, trying to figure out who was singing "Largo al factotum," aka "Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, Figaro, etc . . .," from Rossini's The Barber of Seville.
I once attended the Metropolitan Opera Pacific Northwest Regional Finals, and one aspiring baritone after the other threw away this aria. Their nervous energy was major, but their performances strangely uninvolving.
How different then, to hang on every word and note of Roberto Servile's…
Ken Boyce's Cake Audio of San Clemente united many well-respected brands in a fine system that impressed many show goers. At the top of my "Wow, this is good" list were the lovely piano timbres on a 45rpm pressing of Eugene Istomin performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No.24, and good old Elvis' absolutely fabulous, prime voice, do-with-me-what-you-want rendition of "Fever." Not yet the overdone cynic of his later years, Presley perfectly gauged every single syllable and nuance in his surprisingly tasteful, no questions left to ask performance. Need I say that it would not have sounded half as…
Yes, it's a mouthful. And perhaps the name will change. But as for now, the new SVS Prime Wireless Pro Powered Speaker Pair ($800/pair), an active/passive self-powered combo whose 200Wpc driver amps are housed in one of the two speaker cabinets, is due out in mid-August. This is a fine-sounding alternative to a sound bar, complete with a 24/192 DAC and an active digital crossover. Connection will be either wired or wireless, with options including DTSS, Play-Fi, AirPlay 2, Chromecast, Spotify Connect, aptX Bluetooth. Play-Fi will enable listeners to stream 24/192 signals.
There's more.…
After I joined Emiko Carlin, Senior Vice President for T.H.E. Show, for our wrap photo op, she said, "What? You missed the opportunity to see MC Audiotech's new speaker?"
What the ever-delightful, tell-it-like-it-is and then some Emiko says, Jason does (within reason). Posing concluded, off to the 2nd floor we dashed to discover Mark Conti in the throes of packing. Quickly was the TL-12 ($TBD), due in September, unshrouded. This baby will have the same drivers as in the Forty-10 loudspeaker, arranged vertically, and coupled to a transmission-line–loaded 12" woofer. The first-order…
First things first. This was one of the best-sounding rooms at T.H.E. Show. Given its sheer size, I have no question that some of the success was due to the various and sundry magical Synergistic Research accouterments—I counted 10 so-called "Acoustic Room Treatment" devices and 5 Synergistic Power Conditioning devices (including Purple fuses)—along with new Synergistic Racks (intended for internal use) and, no surprise, Synergistic Research cabling.
But all that would have amounted to little if the rest of the components hadn't been up to snuff. No problem there. In a surprise…