"Wish You Were Here"
Here's the SACD in its multichannel glory, newly arrived at RMAF!
(the clue)
Swedish manufacturer Sjofn was luring visitors into its room with an attractive woman drawing their attention to a poster on the wall outside the door announcing (the clue). Inside the room was a pair of unprepossessing stand-mounted speakers, driven by a Hegel amplifier via Supra cables. The two-way, ported Sjofn speakers ($999/pair) were taking full advantage of their boundary loading to produce a big sound.
25 Years of Cardas
George Cardas had had a celebratory coin minted to celebrate his company's first quarter century: "25 years helping musicians reproduce their music" it states on the front. Amen to that sentiment, George.
On the other side of the coin is a tribute to George's friend and mentor, retailer Brooks Berdan, who passed away last summer.
A Zu Party
Something strange and awesome was going on in the Zu Audio room. The lights were low, an evil but alluring sound was filling the room, and the company’s Sean Casey was crouched down in a corner, surrounded by vinyl.
AMR—First Sound—Daedalus
I stuck my head in the door of Room 8009. "That's Willie Nelson," I recognized that distinctive voice. "But what's he singing? Wait a second, that's Peter Gabriel's 'Don't Give Up'WT...?" I had to go in and take a seat. Daedalus Athena three-way speakers ($9950/pair) were being driven by AMR AM-77 monoblock amplifiers which in turn were being fed signal from a First Sound Presence Deluxe tubed preamp ($9200). Source was AMR's impressive CD-77 CD Processor. Nice, very nice.
Angel City Audio & Melody Valve HiFi
Angel City Audio built a system comprising their Trinity loudspeaker ($6999/pair), Melody Pure Black 101 preamplifier ($4499), and Melody M835 monoblock power amplifiers ($5899/pair), along with an Onix XCD50 CD player and Melody cables and interconnects.
Apex—Soulution—Focal
When Michael Fremer reviewed the 710 amplifier from Swiss manufacturer Soulution last August, his praise for the sound was surpassed by mine for the measured performance. "The Soulution 710 is definitely one of the best-measuring amplifiers I have encountered, " I wrote, "Color me impressed."
Denver retailer Apex Audio, which is continuing in the tradition of the late John Barnes' Audio Unlimited store, was using the Soulution 700 monoblocks ($130,000/pair), which each offer 430W into ohms, 860W into 4 ohms, were being use to drive Focal's Stella Utopia EM speakers ($90,000/pair), with their electromagnet-powered woofers via Tara Labs cables.
Apple Pie and No DOS
DeVore Fidelity’s John DeVore was as proud of his t-shirt as he was his new Gibbon 88 loudspeaker.
April Music, Eximus, Stello, Verastarr
April Music presented the new Eximus DP1 DAC-preamplifier ($2995), which offers six digital inputs, including USB 2.0; two analog inputs, including a front-panel Aux; three analog outputs, including a front-panel headphone jack; and supports resolutions up to 24-bit/192kHz.
Atocha Design
It was a pleasure to finally meet Nick and Jennifer Atocha, makers of the most beautiful record cabinets I’ve ever seen. In the imaginary future of my mind, I will live in an old brownstone with extremely high ceilings, wide plank floors, cool chandeliers, a spiral staircase, a grand fireplace, a secret library, sky lighting, and at least three or five (I don’t like even numbers) of Atocha’s record cabinets.
Jennifer very slyly warned me of the possibility—no, inevitability—of my dear Ikea Expedit shelves collapsing beneath the weight of all my precious vinyl. I frowned.
“Do you have children?” she asked.