30 Years of Reference Recordings
RR's Keith O. Johnson and Jan Mancuso celebrate 30 years of great sound with a handful of recent releases.
A Loss of Urgency
We were on a mission, of sorts. A mission to find a pair of small loudspeakers, which, as it turns out, is not the easiest thing in the world to do. Especially around these parts, where, it seems, size and volume are set to impress.
Acoustic Sounds
Chad Kassem couldn't resist showing us his latest LPS: Sonny Terry's Sonny Is King and Johnny Griffin's The Little Giant.
Andrew Lipinski Solves Show Room Acoustics Problem
Andrew and Lukas Lipinski, manufacturers of the L-707 monitor I reviewed">http://stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/1205lipinski/">reviewed in December, were fed up with poor room acoustics and slow foot traffic at trade shows. So they eliminated the room! Ray Kimber urged them to take the empty spot in the Alexis Park lunchroom for their demo setup. Andrew set up one of the few multi-channel demo systems at the Show using six L-707s, including the one for rear height information seen in the photo. Despite the din of the lunch crowd, all I had to do was sit in the nearfield, and I was bathed in sound from Andrew's multi-channel recordings, such as his new Republique SACD. For the photo, however, they kicked back with Telarc's recording of Ladysmith Black Mambazo singing "Diamonds in the Soles of Her Shoes." It definitely rocked the lunchroom!
Anthony Gallo Takes The Mega-Buck Boys To School
Anthony Gallo's new Reference 3.1 loudspeaker ($2995/pair) proved that it's better to set up a room properly than it is to try to beat it into submission with expensive components. Not to take anything away from Gallo's Ref 3.1, which sounded fantastic, but his demo proved that God truly is in the details, sounding bigger, realer, richer, and more dynamic than most of the googolbuck systems we heard today. In fact, one importer, who shall remain nameless, confessed that he had a pair in his living room rather than the costly lines he brings into the country.
Arcam's Solo Lifestyle
I weeble-wobbled my way upstairs, following the sounds of The White Stripes', "My Doorbell."
Art Audio Amp Includes Soul
Used by Bösendorfer in their demo, the Art Audio Adagio has to be one of the most beautiful tube amplifiers made. If you see it and don't want it, you have no soul.
Art Project
We'd heard a lot about Raidho's Eben X-3 loudspeakers ($16,500/pair), so we dropped by T.H.E. Show to check out these dynamic three-way floorstanders. When we arrived, Art Audio's Kevin Carter was listening to the X-3s driven by Art's Vivo 25Wpc 300B push/pull stereo power amplifier ($13,000). It sure was purty.
Ascendo's System Mmmmm
Leave it to a bass player. John Atkinson sidled up to Jon Iverson and me last night and said, "Have you heard Ascendo's room yet? It has a bandpass woofer that doesn't sound like a bandpass woofer at all—it sounds good."
At the Sands
To be honest, I didn't give it much of a chance. I mean, especially after Jim Thiel's">http://www.thielaudio.com/">Thiel's captivating presentation on the new CS3.7, the Philips press conference seemed like so much noise and swirling lights and fake boobs.