Report By Rick Becker
Page 3
Click here
to e-mail reviewer
Next door, in the mbl room was another system of excellence that
produced a considerably different sound than the Joseph/Manley room. The
omni-directional radial tweeter and midrange drivers of the mbl loudspeakers
create a very nice sense of space that allows one to walk around the room
without the soundstage collapsing. The sound was very tightly focused,
and very smooth, but also very cool or dry. I would peg it at the
accurate side of accurate, and attribute it to the solid-state nature of the
components. I though about how beautiful the mbl amplifier with its signature
gloss-black finish would look between my gloss-black Kharma loudspeakers, but
dismissed the idea as too much of a good thing. In contrast, in a
smaller system on a side wall, stand mounted Radialstrahler-Compact mbl 121
monitors in a gloss-red finish were very attractive with side firing woofers
and front facing ports, an unusual configuration, to say the least. This
$10K monitor uses the same tweeter and mid drivers as the $45K model 101E.
Whatever the color, you can color the mbl gear expensive.
Analysis Plus had a lot of cable product on display in another large
room, as well as a system playing with their Golden Oval loudspeaker cable
($6320/8'pr). Electronics were Simaudio Moon driving DeVore
Fidelity's Silverback Reference loudspeaker ($14K). The literature
describes a lot of technology in the crossover and cabinet design of these
Brooklyn-made loudspeakers. They sounded very smooth to me, but with the
conversations going on at the cable end of the room, it was difficult to get a
real fix on them. Fortunately, they were wise enough to leave the
gorilla logo on the backside of the loudspeaker. One of the sales reps
took a seat beside me and I was surprised to look over and see my friend Dave
LoVerde, whom I knew from earlier days at The Analog Shop back home.
Always a gentleman, it was good to see him again.
I sat through a surround sound & home theater demonstration at Outlaw
Audio where they were offering enticing show specials on pre/processor —
amplifier combinations. They seemed to be featuring their LFM-1
subwoofer at $579. On a table at the back of the room were three new,
yet to be introduced, products. One was the upcoming 1070 receiver with
7 channels @ 65 watts, with DVI switching, for under $1000. The other,
my favorite of the three, and destined to become a classic, is the RR2150, The
Last Great Stereo Receiver, with built-in bass management.
6th Floor
Jumping up to the 6th Floor I found another impressive
room. This time it was the Hyperion Audio room, a brand that I
was totally unfamiliar with. A Sony CD player fed the Hyperion
preamplifier ($1495) and power amplifier (also $1495). The loudspeaker
was their HPS-938/HPS-938L that looked like an awkward Watt/Puppy copy but
contained very special Hyperion designed drivers. Did I say this was a
very impressive room? That's what my ears told me when I closed my
eyes. We will be hearing more about this company in the future, I
suspect.
From the unfamiliar to the very familiar, I stepped into the Tetra Loudspeakers
room and greeted Adrian Butts with a smile and a handshake. Adrian saved my Montreal report when my Sony digital camera temporarily and
mysteriously malfunctioned. On this morning he was playing his largest
model, which has evolved slightly over the years since its inception.
The Dynaudio tweeter he originally used went out of production, so he switched
to a new Scanspeak, which necessitated crossover changes. Porting was
also added to allow use in larger rooms. This particular pair was
finished with wood stain on the fronts and black sides and back, and looked
rather conservative. In the past, I've seen it with much more wild
combinations of finishes. Nonetheless, it sounded as good as my distant
memory, driven by a Birdland pre-amplifier/DAC ($1850) and Birdland mosfet
amplifier with digital bias control putting out a mere 18 wpc. An EAD
DVD Master spun the CDs. The choice of equipment rack was quite
appropriate, picking up on the pyramid shape of the heads of the Tetras.
Rumor has it that these loudspeakers were the hit of the party after hours.
I was hoping Vince Bruzzese would bring his Acoustic Cave listening
environment, which he premiered at the Montreal show, but he reverted to his
tried and true form of comparing two modestly priced Totem Acoustics
loudspeaker in a smaller room. I could barely squeeze into the
doorway and catch his attention, just to let him know I stopped by. The
new Totem Rainmaker, another small two-way design, at either $900 or $950
(depending on which of my notes is correct), is carved from the same log as
other Totem monitors, with real wood veneers, but at an even more affordable
price. Being driven by Totem's own integrated amplifier, the music was
very inviting, as witnessed by the room jammed with show goers every time I
passed by. It sure sounded like another winner from where I stood.
On the other system in the room, it looked like the diminutive and affordable
Arro floorstander was seeing comparative action.
Yamaha is perhaps a household word, but not usually associated with
high-end audio. On silent display, however, I came across two pricey
items that bear further investigation. The first is the YPC-1 Passive
Controller (preamp) at $2K, and the other the MX-D1, a 500 wpc twin monaural
digital amplifier for $5K. With these price tags, they should be serious
products. Notice the back sides reflected in the mirror behind these pieces.
Spendor was playing their S-8e 2-way floorstander in dark cherry
finish ($2899), driven by Perreaux ECO-2 CD player ($4K) and R-200i
integrated amplifier ($6900). These brands complimented each other
nicely, but still ended up on Spendor side of the fence with a warm, classic
sound that many people find very inviting and easy to listen to without strain
or irritation. I, for one, certainly enjoy tasting this flavor from time
to time.
GTT Audio and Video is both a retailer of very high-end equipment
and an importer of Kharma loudspeaker and cables. Bill Parish set
up a couple of rooms, one that topped $100K, and the other that came close to
$200K.
Half of the difference in price was in the loudspeaker alone, and involved
two world premiers. With the highly acclaimed 3.2FE two-way model ($21K)
was premiered the Kharma Ceramique Subwoofer ($7K). (The black box behind the
subwoofer in the photo is the vacuum pump for the Walker turntable).
In the more expensive room, was premiered the Kharma Midi Exquisite-DE with
diamond tweeters ($75K), biamplified by yet another world premiere: two pair
of Lamm ML2.1 SET monoblocks ($29,290 pr.). While it was clear to
me that the Midi Exquisite had a superior high end, I will be the first to
admit that my aging ears do not fully appreciate the capabilities of the
diamond tweeter. The black holes in the ceramic midrange driver are used
to eliminate ringing. In lower priced Kharmas, this ringing is addressed
in the crossover.
The rest of each room was also first class, with Walker Audio
Prosecenium Gold turntables ($27K) and Lamm L2 line stages ($14K+) in each
room. Other components varied from one room to the next: Walker phonostage in
one room, Lamm phonostage in the other. Lamm M1.2 Reference amps in one
system; the aforementioned pairs of Lamm ML2.1 SET amps in the other.
One product that caught my eye, which should be of interest to most
audiophiles, was the affordable Gingko Audio Cloud 10 platforms ($300
each), which absorb vibrations and clarify the sound. Below,
Stereophile's analog guru, Michael Fremer, asks Bill Parish to play a Frank
Sinatra cut. The only thing I would have asked for would have been a
larger room, knowing first hand what kind of space the Kharmas can recreate.
Nonetheless, these two rooms were among the very best at the show.
Bill Parish and Michael Fremer
Joule Electra, JPS Labs and Merlin Music Systems have
formed a tight team for a number of years, and the sound of this trio keeps
getting better and better. Judd Barber's VZN-100 tube monoblocks
($15K) are beautiful to look at and very transparent, as output-transformerless
amps tend to be. But I sensed even greater transparency this year, than
ever before. Having reviewed ERS paper, and knowing that Bobby
Palkovic had experimented with it, I talked with him about it. Just as I
did, he found that it didn't work in the crossover of the loudspeaker, but
worked exceptionally well wherever there was a chipset (CD players, DACs, and
amplifiers). He found a perfect home for it in the outboard Bam (bass
augmentation module). This latest version of the 2-way floorstanding VSM
model, now the VSM-MX, comes in at $10K with gloss lacquered finish standard.
I'm sure there have been additional upgrades to the crossover, and the
resulting increase in transparency puts these loudspeakers up there with the
very best in the world. I forgot to ask Bobby about the stand mounted
TSM model, but a quick hop, skip and jump over to their website indicates that
model has received similar MX upgrades.
In the hallway, I ran into Joe Skubinski, whose JPS In-Wall cable gives my
system a 30 Amp dedicated line, and Superconductor+ loudspeaker cable I use in
my reference system. Another gentleman from Equi=tech, whose name
escaped me, indicated that their balanced line conditioner was being used in
the Joule/JPS/Merlin room. Good show, gentlemen! This room was
another in the handful of best at the show.
Odyssey found a novel way to bring home their high value products by
listing their products and prices on a rug spread between their loudspeakers.
While not quite Tibetan hand-knotted quality, it sure drove home the point.
I rave about this company every year in my Montreal reports, and they brought
it all to a broader audience this year in New York. Based on designs
from the German Symphonic Line, the electronics are made here in the United
States. The loudspeakers come from Canada, I believe.
Of particular interest was a white turntable that I was told was one of
only three made by Symphonic Line, and not for sale.
Click here for
page 4
Click here to see
a
complete listing of show exhibitors.
Click here to see our
2003 show coverage.
High-Performance Audio Reviews
