Part Two

  It is day two and lets get right to the news...

 

Robert Harley

And here's Mr. Robert Harley of Fi magazine.

Huh? Did you just read he's with Fi magazine? YEP! You read that correctly. As of early this morning Fi magazine announced it's new technical editor as none other then the highly respected Robert Harley. Wasting no time, i had a little talk with the man and he said to me "I'm delighted to join Fi and look forward to contributing to its future." This is not a rumor folks. This new news is fact. Congratulations Robert! Enjoy the Music.com wishes you the very best.

 

Audio Note M10 Pre-amplifier

Famous for their hand built all silver wired single-ended amplifiers like the Ongaku, Audio Note was displaying their model M10 tubed phono preamplifier. This phat yummy is a true dual mono design using the 5687 and 6072 tube for the phono stage. Inductor equalization is also employed to achieve a high quality, top notch phono stage. The preamplifier section uses another set of the 5687 and 6072 tubes to achieve a high current output to drive long cable lengths. One pure silver hand made signal capacitor assists in the preamplifier stage (a really tweaky and expensive part here folks). Three line level inputs, one phono, and one tape loop input with one right and one left channel volume control round out the M10. One balanced input and output via XLR and all others via the industry standard RCA connector. (Said in good humor) In the usual Audio Note fashion we're talkin' audio exotica at the low, low bargain price of only $125,000. Chump change i tell ya. Buy two while supplies last!

 

Avantgarde Acoustic Loudspeakers

Using reel to reel tapes and an Audio Note Neiro amplifier, the Avantgarde Acoustic speakers easily filled their show room with music. Their new speaker, called the Uno, has a rated frequency response from 30-20,000 Hz (with included self-powered amplifier/crossover) with greater then 99 db/w/m sensitivity! With a sensitivity this high one only needs to supply an amplifier of, maybe, 25 watts to achieve lease breaking volume levels. Aided by their spherical horn design, the Uno's are capable of throwing 180 degree of sound dispersion. Prices starting from $10,990... or save $5 with Enjoy the Music.com's valuable Super Saver coupon :-)

 

Kora Triode 100 SB Mono Block Amplifier

Straight from France, these monoblocks use the Russian 6C33CB output tube, 6922 for input, and the 6BQ5WA for driver stage to achieve 80 watts output power. An incredibly high 115db signal to noise ratio, superwide 10Hz to 60kHz bandwidth, and a low rated distortion of only .07% @ 1 watt might just make those 'tube measure bad' naysayers finally concede in defeat. This triode amplifier uses metal film resistors, polypropylene capacitors, silver solder, gold connectors, double-sided circuit board and more make this unit so good and reliable that Kora guarantees this unit for two years. All this for only $7,995. And if you act now we'll throw in the Ginsu knives. They dice, they slice, they make thousands of Julian fries.

 

Joly

"Would you like to be smarter" says the top of the Joly literature. The literature continues "It could let your brain feel calm and the clear voice could raise your wisdom. "Wisdom is the fourturn belonging you forever."

Yes, we all have our Joly jokes, but seriously here folks... i heard their demo and other, more expensive setups from others during show. Can ya believe the Joly room did beat the sound i heard in a few rooms? No, i'm not saying they were anywhere near the best either, but their room representatives do seem to be very nice and not aggressive (like in other rooms). Maybe if we got together and all voted for Joly as the best speaker at the show, just for shagrins mind you, it might just make other speaker manufactures brain nerve get fried. Then they'd need a pair of Joly speakers!

 

Odeon No 33

Horn speakers seem to be multiplying! These beautifully crafted wood speaker by Odeon features three separate cabinets to insure optimum airspace and no driver to driver in one box interaction. Frequency response is rated from 29-19,000 Hz +/-3 db and their 96 db/w/m sensitive. The all important midrange consists of a six inch paper doped cone with a hefty 24 inch birch plywood horn. The the cabinets are claimed to be decoupled by mechanical filters made of birch plywood and thick rubber. Many, many pounds of wood help to make this speaker very attractive to the eye as the music pleases your ear. These speakers are personally setup in your listening room by your dealer to insure their performance and your musical pleasure. Because you wanna know, these puppies are priced at $38,400. Gotta admit, with all this wood even i got a woody.

 

Micro Seki RX-1500FVG

Yes, your not imaging things. Micro Seki is alive and well offering three different versions. Shown here is their top-o-the-heap unit featuring air bearing for floating the platter, a vacuum suction system which seals your vinyl disc securely to the platter, a quadruplex suspension system (consisting of coil spring, rubber diaphragm supported piston, compressed air, and high viscosity oil), and a 9 Kg platter. This unit plays 33.3 or 45 rpm records and offers a speed adjustment as well. Micro Seki's turntables are priced from $5,495 to $29,995 (as shown here although the tonearms aren't included). Why not go for a test drive and take the Micro Seki for a spin.

 

Graaf GM 200

How would ya like to have a cool lookin' amplifier which runs hot with 40 tubes all on one chassis. Ever wondered what all the underground raves were for output transformerless (OTL) designs? Whoever said tubes have no bass or rolled off highs hasn't heard this amplifier on the right speakers. Frequency response is rated from 7 Hz all the way up to 350 kHz (-3db)! Using OTL with, say, Quads seems to be a favorite combination among those in the know. The Graaf GM 200 sports 200 watts per channel. Balanced and unbalanced inputs are available as well. Weighing in at 30 Kg this is one monster tube amplifier.

 

---> People at Hi-Fi 97.