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Blue Redpoint

Redpoint's Peter Clark says, "Your heart doesn't beat in ones and zeroes—it's analog." That's why he builds turntables, 'tables machined from solid billets of aircraft aluminum and configures the platter, motor, and tonearm platforms on separate support pods on a common platform.

The $15,000 Model A's platter is topped off with Teflon and is damped with lead shot and oil.

"Why is a turntable called Redpoint blue?"

"I did that for our distributor Frank L. Kraus, who also distributes ModWright and already had a blue ModWright LS36.5. Since Redpoint turntables are…

ModWright On!

After admiring the Redpoint Model A's blueness, we turned our beady gaze to ModWright's blue $3995 LS-36.5 line stage preamplifier. It employs 6H30 tubes, with a 5AR4 tube rectifier. "We've added a phase inversion switch and balanced inputs and outputs," distributor Frank L. Kraus said.

Redpoint's Peter Clark cued up Eden Atwood's bossa nova album Waves and the show's hustle and flow simply disappeared. Ahhhh—is that a Joe Harley production? Of course it is.

ModWright and Redpoint made great music together.

Most Enthusiastic Demo of T.H.E. Show

TBI's Jan Plummer is so proud and punched up about his $400/pair Majestic Diamond 1 single driver loudspeakers that he seems to shimmer—as if he's transporting between this plane of existence and another one.

The Majestic Diamonds employ TBI's patent-pending Embedded Transmission Line technology (ETL), which Plummer didn't exactly explain to us. He did demo the Majestic Diamonds for us and they sounded a lot better than any compact, one-driver speaker had any right to—so we expect that whatever other dimension Plummer is jaunting to has different laws of physics.

What was…

Behold!

Behold bills itself as "true digital audio" since it maintains audio as a digital signal up to the amplifier stage. The 600Wpc BPA768 (US price TBD) incorporates 768kHz/24-bit signal processing, a switch-mode power supply, an analog output stage, and an integrated power conditioner.

The Behold APU768 audio processing unit (US price TBD) and CD-Player (US price TBD) utilize a Bluetooth Pocket PC as a remote control, which is a clever idea.

Single-Ended Ecstasy

We were once again impressed by how un-hi-fi the sound in the deHavilland room was, this time in conjunction with a pair of Tannoy Prestiges. The $10,000/pair 50W deHavilland GM-70 single-ended triode is pure class-A, with zero negative feedback. The GM-70's directly-heated triode vacuum tube is said to be the largest output triode available today. We found the sound sweet, but surprisingly detailed and dynamic. Fit'n'finish were superb.

Sound Electric's Woodie

At CES 2006, Jon Iverson and I were impressed by Studio Electric's $8500 Type One modules, even though the mating $3500 XLR woofer modules weren't operating. This year Studio Electric was showing off a pair of the $15,500/pair Type Two towers, which were pure art deco chromed metal work.

Yes, but what Studio Electric was playing when we walked in was a different model employing the same drivers as the Type Two, but in a simpler enclosure—most noticeably incorporating a wood woofer enclosure;

The new model comes in at $6500. "The metalwork was what kills you in pricing,"…

Singular Vandersteen 5As

No, that's not another Vandersteen sock—it's the carbon fiber plinth of the Vandersteen 5As in Audio Research's room. "Richard [Vandersteen] isn't really offering the 5s in carbon fiber," Audio Research's Terry Dorn told us. "He just wanted to explore the material, so he did these."

So how do they sound?

Dorn cued a disc and simply smiled.

We listened and we smiled too.

(Note: this image is a close up of the carbon pattern to show the texture - the speaker looks a bit darker under normal light and more refined looking than how it appears here—a gorgeous…

Lucky Seven

This was our first chance to hear the $8995 Audio Research Reference CD7 CD player. We were impressed!

Hybrids Are Hot

"Recent advances in solid-state output devices and other components have opened up design possibilities never previously available," Audio Research's Terry Dorn explained. "And that led to our developing the Hybrid Drive HD220 stereo power amplifier ($8995)."

A JFET input feeds a 6922 dual-triode gain stage, which, in turn, feeds a 6H30 dual-triode cathode follower. That signal goes through ARC's proprietary coupling caps to the amplifier's 24 Thermal Trak bipolar output devices (12 per channel), achieving 220Wpc. Thermal Trak output devices automatically adjust their internal bias…

Is She Going For an Upskirt?

Bill Greene's photo of a curator examining Whistler's Mother is one of the Boston Globe's best photographs of 2006. See the shot and listen to Greene tell how he got it.