Michael Lavorgna

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T.H.E. Show Newport 2011

Michael Lavorgna | Jun 06, 2011 | 1 comments

The curvaceous Estelon Model XA loudspeaker ($43,900/pair), which uses a trio of ceramic drivers from Accuton (11" woofer, 7" midrange and 1.2" tweeter) was paired with electronics from Edge, including NL 12.2 amplifier ($24,388) and Signature preamplifier ($14,388), and a transport Drive 2 and DAC 2 from Neodio (pricing not available). Cabling was provided by Kubala-Sosna, and a Running Springs Audio Dmitri AC Power Conditioner ($4500) conditioned the power.

The sound in this room—we listened to the Beatles in high-res—was clean and fast and my notes include the thought "Like giving the Beatles a haircut and a shave."

HiFi One—Stillpoints—Wadax—Echole

T.H.E. Show Newport 2011

Michael Lavorgna | Jun 06, 2011 | 0 comments

So you want cutting edge? Innovation? I’d say the team in the HiFi One room have you covered. I hope I can do this elevator-speech version justice—the Wadax PRE1-Phono solution provides you with a custom RIAA curve optimized for your turntable to nanovolt level signal precision. They refer to this process as "mapping." How do they do it? Wadax created a laquer "master" that is played on your turntable and the Wadax musIC chip in the PRE-1 captures the associated data and sends it, wirelessly via the Internet, back to Wadax where they analyze and optimize the RIAA curve in your PRE1-Phono based on the data they captured directly from your turntable. Or maybe I should say!

And really, that's not even half the story since that PRE1 can be configured as a line-level preamplifier, preamp with integrated DAC, with the above mentioned phono stage, with "WADA optimized PureDAC mode," and as a phono stage with step-up amplifier. You should visit the Wadax website for the whole story.

YG Acoustics, Tenor Audio & Kubala Sosna

T.H.E. Show Newport 2011

Michael Lavorgna | Jun 06, 2011 | 6 comments

"Tons of body, weight, speed, great, big and open. How big can a flamenco guitar be?" read my notes from the sonically impressive YG Acoustics room. Speakers were the YG Kipod 2 ($49,000/pair). Associated electronics: Tenor 350M monoblocks (Cdn$100,000/pair), Tenor Line 1/Power 1 preamplifier (Cdn$75,000), Bryston BDP-1, dCS Scarlatti DAC, with cable by Kubala-Sosna.

Positive Feedback Online

T.H.E. Show Newport 2011

Michael Lavorgna | Jun 06, 2011 | 1 comments

The good folks from PFO had a "Hospitality Suite" mainly manned and womanned by Dave and Carol Clark. "Hospitable" is an understatement. Serving refreshments and lots of great stories of the many, many concerts they’ve attended and the music they love, Dave and Carol Clark are some nice people.

What was even nicer about the PFO Hospitality suite, in a hi-fi sense, is it also housed a system that was part of a project Dave Clark organized for the school where he teaches—Zu Audio donated a pair of unfinished Soul Superfly cabinets and Dave’s students finished 'em. I think they did a great job. They also got to listen to a cool hi-fi that included the Bel Canto C5i DAC/integrated amp, Nordost Purple Flare cabling, XLO/Ultra Power AC Power Strip, Wadia 171t, Oppo BDP-85SE universal player, and Pure Music Software.

I hate to repeat myself (not really) but if you want to attract younger people into our hobby you’re going to have to do more than talk. Bravo Mr. Clark for just doing it!

HighEnd Electronics

T.H.E. Show Newport 2011

Michael Lavorgna | Jun 06, 2011 | 0 comments

Apple Valley, California-based retailer and distributor HighEnd Electronics was showing the Voxativ Ampeggio, a single-driver horn-loaded loudspeaker from Germany ($29,750/pair), which will be reviewed by Art Dudley in the August issue of Stereophile. The KR Audio VA 340 MkII, a 300B-based SET handled the Ampeggio's light-weight, 100dB-sensitive load. A modified (by HighEnd Audio) Sony XA9000ES transport ($3000) fed an Audio Synthesis DAX DAC Discrete ($6000). Components sat on a Gregitek Stabtower 2 ($4790) and a Griegtek Stab 1 Platform ($765). Cables were provided by Synergistic Research—Galileo Universal Speaker Cell ($2500) and Galileo Universal Interconnect Cell ($1500). Power cables included the Audio Magic Liquid Air ($500), Synergistic Hologram D ($2600), and the Synergistic Hologram A ($2600). Power conditioning was courtesy Synergistic PowerCell 10 SE ($5000), Audio Magic Ground Disrupter ($700), and a Kemp SNS Plus ($195).

But wait, there's more. . .

Fidelis AV—Harbeth—Perreaux—Stein

T.H.E. Show Newport 2011

Michael Lavorgna | Jun 06, 2011 | 0 comments

Distributor Fidelis AV was showing products from its worldly stable, including the Harbeth Compact 7ES speaker ($3950/pair in Rosewood, $3650/pair in Cherry), the Perreaux Audiant 80i, an 80Wpc integrated amplifier that comes with an internal USB DAC and phono stage ($2995), the Palmer Audio 2.5 turntable ($6000), with an Audio Oragami tonearm ($3000) and Dynavector 20X2 cartridge ($850), all tied together by LFD cables. The more astute observer may notice a little black box sitting on a thin white stand behind the left loudspeaker. That's . . .

Sunny’s Home Theater and Music Systems (Room 2)

T.H.E. Show Newport 2011

Michael Lavorgna | Jun 06, 2011 | 1 comments

Sunny's mere-mortal room included two setups; Octave Audio V80 tube integrated amp ($9950), T+A Music Receiver ($3800), and the Dynaudio DM3/7 loudspeakers ($2000/pair). There was also a desktop system which consisted of the Naim Uniti ($2450) and a pair of Dynaudio Focus 100 active loudspeakers ($2400/pair).

I took a few minutes to speak to Sunil Merchant, President of Sunny's . . .

Sunny’s Home Theater and Music Systems (Room 1)

T.H.E. Show Newport 2011

Michael Lavorgna | Jun 06, 2011 | 1 comments

Covina, CA-based retailer Sunny's put one of their best feet forward with a pair of Wilson Audio Sashas ($27,700/pair), coupled to Boulder electronics that included the 2060 Stereo Power Amplifier ($46,000), 2010 preamplifier ($46,000), 1008 phono preamplifier ($12,000), and 1021 disc player ($27,700). Everything sat on a Finite Elemente Pagoda Signature rack and was cabled with Transparent Opus wire.

While I was in-room we listened to vinyl spinning on the Spiral Groove SG1.1 turntable ($20,000) and there was a lot of musical slam.

Episode Audio

T.H.E. Show Newport 2011

Michael Lavorgna | Jun 06, 2011 | 0 comments

The Episode V ($12,500/pair) is a "ground-breaking wide-dispersion speaker" and you can pretty much intuit from the photo of the speaker the angle they’ve taken. The 88dB/4 ohm Episode V was driven by the Simaudio Moon 600i integrated amplifier and a Simaudio Moon SuperNova CD player handled the discs. (Both Simaudio components were courtesy of Definition Audio.) All cable was, and I quote, "audio grade cable." I'd like to tell you more about the dispersion characteristics of this loudspeaker and if it in fact broke any ground but there was not enough time for me to play musical chairs. Sitting centered, out of habit, I found the Episodes sounded airy.

Sonist Loudspeakers

T.H.E. Show Newport 2011

Michael Lavorgna | Jun 06, 2011 | 0 comments

In an approach that's similar in some respects to the Tonian Acoustics TL-S1, the Sonist Concerto 4 ($5895/pair) marries dual, proprietary, 8" treated-paper–cone woofers to a Fountek NeoCD2.0 ribbon tweeter for a claimed frequency range of 27Hz–40kHz and 97dB sensitivity.

While Sonist had a few tube amplifiers on hand, we listened to the Audion Sterling Silver EL34 Anniversary integrated amp ($3499), the Wyred for Sound Sonos sample-rate converter ($890), which converts i²S into 96kHz, up-sampled S/PDIF, and a Wyred for Sound 32-bit DAC ($1499). The DAC has a defeatable 32-bit volume control, 2 coax inputs, 2 Toslink inputs, 1 AES/EBU input, 1 balanced i²S input via HDMI cable, and a 24-bit/192kHz asynchronous USB input. All cabling was the Cable Research Lab Bronze Series.

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Michael Lavorgna

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