Wes Phillips

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It Could Only Happen in Montreal
FSI 2008
Wes Phillips  |  Apr 05, 2008  |  0 comments
I was riding the elevator yesterday, when I spotted Attention Screen's Mark Flynn and Chris Jones. I jumped out of the lift and asked, "What's up?"
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Lucky Number 781
FSI 2008
Wes Phillips  |  Apr 05, 2008  |  2 comments
Wadia was showing its almost ready-to-ship CD/SACD player, the $15,000 781. (A 781i with digital inputs and outputs is also in the works.) The 781 uses two signal processors feeding a programmable gate array and the company's proprietary DigiMaster 2.5 upsampling software. This, Wadia claims, results in a data rate of 1.4112 million samples per second. The 781 also sports Clocklink jitter reduction for both CD and SACD.
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Sign O' the Times
FSI 2008
Wes Phillips  |  Apr 04, 2008  |  0 comments
In a show that is distinguished by very good signage, Blue Circle's room is marked by what designer Gilbert Yeung proclaimed "the ugliest signs in the show." Yeung, an indefatigable self-promote, arrived at FSI, only to discover the show had provided no signs for the room. Yeung ran with the concept, deliberately lettering his own signs in a childish "Chinglish."
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Revenge of the FtTH
FSI 2008
Wes Phillips  |  Apr 04, 2008  |  1 comments
Yeung was demonstrating a few new Blue Circle products, an inexpensive USB DAc and the $4895 95Wpc FtTH integrated amplifier. Yeung calls the FtTH his "statement" preamp, saying that it employs Blue Circle's True Balanced Audio technology, which, he says, "drives both the positive and the negative output terminals for better control of the loudspeakers."
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A Duet That Really Sings
FSI 2008
Wes Phillips  |  Apr 04, 2008  |  0 comments
The slot-loaded two-way JM Reynaud Duet loudspeaker ($1525/pair) sounded quite special, driven by the Blue Circle FtTH. "That was surprising," the Reynaud rep explained. "We had Gilbert's top-of-the-line preamplifier and a pair of Blue Moon monoblocks, which we had intended to use. While we were setting up, we connected the FtTH and the synergy between that amp and these speakers was just magical—so we knew what to do."
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Just Keep Thinking
FSI 2008
Wes Phillips  |  Apr 04, 2008  |  2 comments
I dropped by Thiel's room to tease them about the fact that I had heard that Rolling Stone had a pair of CS3.7 loudspeakers, while a certain audiophile magazine did not.
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Small Coherent Source
FSI 2008
Wes Phillips  |  Apr 04, 2008  |  2 comments
While Thiel's Ken Dawkins and I were talking, he said, "Have I told you about the SCS4?"
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Fidelio!
FSI 2008
Wes Phillips  |  Apr 04, 2008  |  0 comments
I always look forward to visiting recording engineer René Laflamme of Fidelio at FSI, because he always has new fun recordings to play.
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Like My Birthday Cake, Only Hotter
FSI 2008
Wes Phillips  |  Apr 04, 2008  |  3 comments
A bird's eye view of the ARC Reference 610T. The thermal updraft was fierce!
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Hunka Hunka Burnin' Glass
FSI 2008
Wes Phillips  |  Apr 04, 2008  |  3 comments
The Galactus-sized Audio Research Reference 610T monoblock amplifiers ($20,000/ea) put out 600W. They require 8 matched pairs of 6550C output tubes, one 6550c regulator, one 6H30 as an amplifier regulator, a pair of 6550Cs as drivers, two 6NIP input tubes, and a 6H30 follower—that's a ton of tubes.
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