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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.

Furman Sound: Passion for Protection and Performance

This man is electric. More than electric, this man is electricity. The strongest, purest current snaps through him and charges the entire room. We crowd around, unable to fully maintain his flow, but also unable to withdraw. John Atkinson and I settle in closest, occupying the front row. JA follows securely along, constant flickers of acknowledgement and wonder emerge, illuminated moments of understanding and interest. At the same time, however, running in the opposite direction, I feel almost as though I'm being rude — too deeply occupied at scribbling these notes, my pen…

Ultra Damping from Ultra Systems

Ultra Systems' Robert Stein cornered me—in the nicest way possible—at the Stereophile/Home Theater party Wednesday night, telling me that he had a great new acoustical damping product that I should check out in his booth. I was going to give this one a pass until he mentioned that it's small, easy-to-install, and inexpensive.

I have high regard for Robert's ability to select products that make for a positive difference in a sound system, so I went the next day to the Ultra Systems booth to have a look. Made by Nucore Technologies, these acoustical damping panels are a mere 11" x 16…

The Basis Turntable Belts are Flat—<I>Really</I> Flat

Stephen Mejias mention Garth Powell's passion for what he does in his report from the Furman room at CES. AJ Conti, the man behind turntable manufacturer Basis Audio, has a similar passion for what he does. His current attention is focused on getting the drive belts for his well-regarded turntables as flat as possible, to eliminate the last vestige of drive-system spuriae from the audio recovered from vinyl. Dissatisfied with the highest precision he could get from commercial ground-belt vendors, he invested in his own production machinery.

The result is the Basis Revolution Belt,…

Gershman Rocks with Red Rock Audio

The Canadian Gershman Black Swan speaker ($30,000/pair), which mounts the tweeter and midrange unit in a separate A-frame enclosure to prevent their performance being affected by vibrations from the woofer, made its debut at HE2006 last May, and I was looking forward to hearing what it could do at CES.

Driven by Red Rock Audio's Renaissance 50W push-pull triode monoblocks ($39,750/pair), they sounded sweet indeed. The zero-loop feedback amplifiers must, of course, have had something to do with that. Red Rock's Alan Stiefel (who moonlights as the organizer of the Rocky Mountain…

Goldmund's $300k Turntable

I couldn't resist posting this photo, not of a product, but of photos of a product, just to get Mikey Fremer all riled up about the fact that the Continuum Caliburn turntable, for which he forked out mucho dinero, is no longer the Big Dog of LP playback.

The Goldmund Reference II celebrates 25 years since the introduction of the original Reference. Just five will be made each year, according to Goldmund's Michel Reverchon when I spoke with him at the company's Bellagio suite, and 2007's production has already been spoken for. And yes, it will cost $300,000.

The Reference II…

On Track With On-Track Audio

I got an email from Stereophile columnist John Marks Wednesday night, urging me to visit the room at the Venetian featuring speakers from retailer On Track Audio. I always do what I am told by my writers, so I looked in Thursday afternoon. There I auditioned the Directorate loudspeaker system, designed by mastering engineer Bill Roberts. All four cabinets are sealed boxes and are finished in exquisitely in-laid veneers, the work of On Track's Jim Carnes, who looks understandably pleased with his work in my photo. The sound with Belles amplification, and Kimber Kable, was very promising…