Lexington, KY–based Thiel Audio has announced that it will partner with Charlottesville, VA–based Crutchfield to offer its speakers online and in Crutchfield brick-and-mortar outlets. Thiel has been famously reluctant to go online, having established itself through its canny vetting of potential retail partners. It kept its distribution clean.
On May 8, Harvey Electronics, with 9 stores in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, announced that it would acquire the Myer-Emco chain's 10 stores in Washington and Maryland. Both companies are consistently ranked among the top "hybrid" retail operations, meaning they have retail locations and emphasize custom A/V installation services. The new company will be called Harvey Electronics, but tri-state area stores will continue to be called Harvey and DC area stores will continue to be identified as Myer-Emco.
Audiophiles are frequently accused of being more in love with gizmos than with music. There may be a kernel of truth in that, but a scant few companies actually exploit the giz factor to give you <I>mo'</I>—a <I>lot</I> mo'.
That's pronounced sheeYEUfn (like <I>that</I> helps) and it's from Norse mythology—Sjöfn inspired passion through her singing. Guru Pro Audio head of R & D, Ingvar Öhman is clearly passionate about his loudspeaker, which he likened to "VWs that perform like Ferraris." The Gurus($1800/pair) are small, designed to be placed near the room boundaries, and were pretty impressive.
Some of the sweetest sound I heard in the whole show was delivered by the Jadis Symphonia CD player ($3500), Jadis E-50 50Wpc integrated amplifier ($8000), and Proac 3.8s ($7500/pair).
I'd seen the Bolzano Villetri TorreBV HF 3005 ($11,400/pair) at last year's CEDIA Expo, but I was felled by bugs in the spinach and BV was hobbled by a display area in the corridor in <I>front</I> of the convention center's main space.
George Kaye was showing not one, but two new products: the Moscode 402P!
VAS Audio's Sze Leung is one pleased papa when it comes to Cayin's new iDAC-1 USB-input DAC ("under $800!"). It has a Burr-Brown DAC, built-in remote controllable analog preamp that uses two 6DJ8s, sports an optical S/DIF digital input as well as the USB port, and even has a headphone jack.
Lars Goller proudly rests on the GamuT Phi7 (price tbd), which couples five-midrange woofers in what he calls "perfect unison," thanks to GamuT's proprietary DC Coupled Midrange technology and Acoustic Coupled Driver technology. He says the tall, thin baffle, which arrays the woofers along almost its entire height, delivers excellent acoustic coupling to the listening room.
Omaha was showing this nifty little 10Wpc No.OD-300B integrated amplifier ($1400), which was driving Omaha's Omaha Speaker (price tbd). Do I need to say that the No.OD300B uses a pair of 300B tubes? The system sounded warm and spacious. 10Wpc may not sound like much, but the Omaha speaker seemed comfortably driven. Fit'n'finish were impressive.