search
My review of the David Hazeltine-George Mraz Trio's Manhattan: The New York Sessions has been posted on Face the Music.
Unlike the Mets, the hi-fi, last night, was hot. Hot. I've read about this, how a system will have its good nights and its bad. But what sense does that make? How can a stereo sound on some nights better than others? It is not a living, breathing animal. It does not suffer from swings of mood or fits of poor judgement. It neither catches cold nor runs fever.
Does it? Does it?
Unlike the Mets, the hi-fi, last night, was hot. Or was it me?
This one will go like so many other hi-fi paragraphs have gone, only it will be mine, mine, mine:
I…
Welcome to Virtual Rocky Mountain.
With 45 minutes before show time in the Marriott Denver Tech Center, let's start with some background information on the 3rd Annual Rocky Mountain Audiofest.
Marjorie Baumert (left), show Co-Director with her husband Al Steifel and Colorado Audio Society founder Art Tedeschi, explains that the show has grown from over 66 exhibit rooms the first year to well over 100. There are at least 313 exhibitors registered for this year's show. Attendees, who travel from 38 states, numbered 1900 last year, up from 1000 at the first show. At least an…
PS Audio was showing a pre-production version of the almost available Power Plant Premier ($2195), paired with the Trio C100 Control amps ($1795), Digital Link 3 DAC ($995), Usher 6311 ($2000), and PS Audio cabling. Most impressive, besides the exceptional depth of presentation, was the computer-generated comparison between the amount of noise eliminated by a $2500 power conditioner and the PS Audio Quintet Power Distribution Center, a passive line conditioner that lists for $695. (The photo shows a member of the PS Audio team gloating over the results). The new power plant, by the way…
The first room to seize my attention today paired Triode Electronics from Japan with the Adagio Acoustic Zen and Micropure Kotaro speakers. Neither speakers was an ideal match for the Triode TRV 35SE (an El34-based class-A/B integrated amp offering 45Wpc for $1699) or Triode TRV-M300SE (300B parallel single-ended monoblocks outputting 20W for $4000), since both amps need higher-sensitivity speakers to truly shine. But both the soundstage and midrange were exceptionally enveloping, with highs more extended on the Kotaros. Distributed by Twin Audio Video of Loma Linda, designer Junichi…
Thom Mackris of turntable manufacturer Galibier Design (whose Stelvio costs $12,500) had me smiling when he played a hilarious track by Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers. Although a little raucous on top, the system (Schröder Reference SQ tonearm, perversely entitled ZYX Universe cartridge, Artemis Labs PH-1 phono stage, preproduction Karna push-pull 300B 15W amp from Nutshell Hi Fidelity, and Gran Sfera Horns by Azzolina Audio) offered a compellingly huge, all-enveloping, elevated soundstage coupled to a beautiful midrange.
One room over from Galibier, and again sporting imposing Azzolina Audio speakers, Hagerman Audio was showing another all-analog system. With no time to tune the system due to emergency equipment repairs necessitated by shipping damage, the system offered wonderful size and considerable midrange beauty, nonetheless.
The phrase "save the best for last" rang true for me today. After close to five hours of listening, with ears that were beginning to scream, I heeded the advice of Sound Applications' Jim Weil and headed to the large room at one end of the 9th floor commandeered by Boulder’s Audio Federation. There I encountered the most rewarding sound I have heard at the show so far.
As I entered, a track from The Modern Jazz Quartet's Concorde LP was playing. The sound was indescribably beautiful. Perhaps the best way to describe it is to report that, when I turned around, I discovered a couple…
In the amazing bass department, Roger Russell’s towering IDS-25 took today’s cake. With 25 drivers per side, and designed to sit very close to the rear wall with speakers and sweet-spot seat arranged in an isosceles triangle, the $18,900/pair speakers eliminate crossovers, woofers, midranges, tweeters, subwoofers...well, everything but the sound itself. With a sensitivity of 92dB, and capable of sounding their best with far less power than that offered by the room’s beefy McIntosh electronics, the IDS-25 includes a fixed active equalizer that creates purported dead flat response…
In a room tuned and focused by a fascinating assortment of diminutive Acoustic Resonators, Behold's modular electronics and Ascendo's loudspeakers offered a great sense of air and depth, albeit with an at times oversized sense of proportion on the Reference Recordings Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances. Ralf Ballmann, designer of the Behold audiophile product line, assures me that the name Behold was not chosen for its biblical connotations. The line was first introduced at CES 2004, and is now distributed by Behold USA of New York. The preamp-to-amp connection is accomplished by a narrow,…