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This year, Sunil Merchant's Sunny's Components occupied a single room at T.H.E. Show in which to turn the spotlight on CH Precision's less expensive but hardly bargain basement 1 series. CH Precision's powerhouse line-up, shown below without the optional power supplies that can beef up performance, consisted of the CH Precision M1.1 stereo amplifier ($54,000), L1 stereo preamplifier ($34,500), P1 phono stage ($31,000 and up), C1.2 D/A processor ($36,000 and up) with 16× upsampling, and D1.5 SACD/CD/MQA transport/player ($41,000 and up).
Tonian Labs was one of several smaller companies at T.H.E. Show that depend on direct sales and a few dealers to get their products to the public. I'm glad I encountered them again, because their Oriaco G6 loudspeaker ($4500/pair) united with a Denon 70Wpc integrated and Marantz CD player to deliver very clear and colorful sound.
Designed by Tony Minasian, a 30-year speaker designer who also works as a recording engineer, the Oriaco G6 includes a Fostek driver, a top-firing tweeter from La Voce of Italy, and a modified SB Acoustics forward-firing tweeter. One of three speaker…
You can always count on the amazing Steven Norber to come up with something intriguing. In this case, it was the brand new Dhyana two-way quasi line-array loudspeaker ($19,500/pair). With a 30mm tweeter and four 152.4mm woofers, the speaker claims a frequency range of 28Hz–23kHz, a nominal impedance of 8 ohms, and a sensitivity of 88.5dB.
Dhyana's cabinets are composed of 800 layers of Baltic Birch, and bracing is spaced according to Fibonacci intervals. The speaker's sound is adjustable via two three-position switches on its back. One switch addresses high-frequency roll-off—Norber set…
Alma Music & Audio has recently gone bi-coastal, adding Alma East in Sterling, VA to its flagship Alma West store in San Diego. In one of their several rooms at the show, the dealership showcased Boenicke Audio's W8 SE loudspeaker in Walnut finish ($16,500/pair). I've always been intrigued by these unique solid-wood speakers, whose internal chambers are carved out by a CNC machine.
The W8 SE is equipped with a swing base (that intentionally allows the speaker to move) and includes a rear-firing tweeter that comes into play at 8kHz and is designed to increase ambience. It also includes…
YG Acoustics' very fine-sounding midrange unit contributed to the lovely sound on YG Acoustics' Ascent loudspeaker ($19,800/pair). Easier to drive than the Colorado company's larger models, it uses the same drivers as in the Carmel and Hailey loudspeakers, but with a new waveguide on the tweeter.
The smaller of two three-way floor-standing loudspeakers in YG's new five-model Peaks series, the Ascent includes thick aluminum front baffles that are precision-machined in-house. Its inch-thick cabinets are sealed, and its crossovers hand-built on circuit boards machined in-house. With a…
To the few trolls who frequently post on this website:
If you think high-end audio is dead, you haven't met designer Nick Tarnofsky (above), a touring guitarist and engineer with an Instagram presence who is in his second year of selling Black Ocean Audio speakers direct. This man is savvy enough to have set up an enigmatic display outside his room—a piece of driftwood with a light on it—to lure people in.
Pairing Black Ocean Audio [M] Stack loudspeakers (starting at $11,000/pair, depending on wood) with VTL 450 monoblocks, whose sound he loves, Nick played hi-rez Spotify…
I usually forego seminars and the like in favor of covering more active demos shows. But when Acora Acoustics announced, "A Very Special Listening Event with Joe Harley at T.H.E. Show," I decided to indulge in Saturday afternoon's tour of historic Blue Note reissues.
Tour guide Harley, who seems to have acquired the title "Tone Poet," has been central to the reissue of countless well-known and lamentably obscure Blue Note titles engineered by Rudy Van Gelder. He picked quite the system: Acora Acoustics VRC speakers in Blue Pearl Granite ($218,000/pair as shown), Boulder 2150…
In a brand déjà vu with High End by Oz, Ken Boyce's Cake Audio of San Clemente showed Lansche 5.2 "singing flame" loudspeakers with their plasma tweeter ($55,000/pair in either white or piano black), different Vitus components, and Albedo cabling. Room dimension and acoustics were different, of course, but both exhibitors had to cope with the challenges of air walls and sonic bleedthrough.
"Sentimental Reasons" from Glen Frey of the Eagles' After Hours LP sounded quite fine at moderate volume. The midrange was superb, as in seductively beautiful. Perhaps Boyce was in a sentimental mood…
I always approach the PBN Audio room with a mix of anticipation and trepidation. Eagerness for the huge images and power that Peter Noerbaek inevitably supplies, and trepidation for the state of my eardrums.
As has been the case on previous occasions, the first time I passed this Might Makes Right room, the sheer force of the sound barreling out of the open doors into the hallway impelled me to retreat. But when I entered, retreat transformed into real treat as music from MoFi's mid '80s LP box set of The Beatles filled the space. Well, more like treatus interruptus. How the family that…
Mark Conti of Pennsylvania-based MC Audiotech teamed up with Ricky Brown's Hi Fi One and Partners to present the new MC Audiotech TL-12 loudspeaker ($25,000/pair–$29,000/pair depending upon finishes and options). This new two-way loudspeaker features three of MC Audiotech's broadband WBLS-wide band line-source devices on top and, for frequencies below 300Hz, a 12" transmission-line woofer. Specified sensivity is 92dB, nominal impedance 8 ohms, frequency range 28Hz–20kHz, and weight 117lb.
Driving the TL-12 were David Berning Audio's SET Reference 20W ZOTL amplifiers, fed by Steven…