"What's so different about it?" I asked.
"Two words," Kevin said. "Tube clock! That means linear ultra-low-jitter performance."
Other details: Tube rectified power supply; dual mono, zero-feedback output stage, and custom designed isolation transformers separating the analog and digital circuits.
Before anything, I received an e-mail from a New York City friend, asking: "Can you smell that where you are?"
Apparently, in New York City, a gas line broke. Or was it thermal inversion? Something was causing a gas-like odor to drop over the city like a lid over a pot. In the New York City area, strange odors come and go, often never to be identified.
I'm alone in my hotel room, now, at 12:34am (EST), thinking about the length of this day, thinking of how this morning seems so far away, wanting to go to sleep, wanting to be forgotten as easily as a New…
Our Product of the Year trophies. It is an absolute pleasure to create and present these awards.
"I'll follow you."
I walk down the busy Venetian corridor with Sonic Flare's Josh Ray. I'm shoved, gently but thoroughly, from behind. I notice a bright green and yellow top. I notice black leather pants. I notice lots of tube blingware. And a:
"Watch out! Coming through!"
"I was just pushed by EveAnna Manley," I say.
"That's going in the blog," Josh responds.
During a lull in the award presentations, John Atkinson and I were visited by Bent Holter, technical director of Norway's Hegel Music Systems. The company, founded in 1990, has just gained US distribution through VMAX Services. I caught up with Bent after the awards.
Here you see Bent offering his 120Wpc entry-level H1 integrated amplifier ($2595). I appreciate the simple, clean design. I also appreciate Bent's excellent smile.
I had the pleasure of becoming familiar with Hegel's CDP2A ($2595). Like the H1 integrated amplifier, it offers a clean, simple design, and features a nicely curved front panel of milled aluminum.
All of Hegel's products employ their patented "Sound Engine Technology." What's that? "It's a dynamic real-time cancelling of error in the system." Bent Holter happily and patiently explained to me (with diagrams and all!) that the "Sound Engine Technology" utilizes a "threshold detector," which identifies, calculates, and eliminates error in the playback chain.
I…
It begins quietly.
"We're not introducing anything new," says Jeff Joseph, "but I wanted to bring people together. For me, a show is about having fun, getting back in touch with friends..." He pauses. Enjoy The Music's Steve Rochlin walks into the room.
"Like Steve," he finishes.
Steve Rochlin takes a seat beside me.
"We see each other, what, twice a year?" Jeff asks him.
Before us, a round table is covered by meats and cheeses, vegetables, crackers, dips, and wines. I wonder how much of it will be left at the end of the night.
…