As
I returned from the Montreal show and the subsequent High Point furniture show
in North Carolina, I was stunned by the news of John Barnes' sudden death in
Colorado. John sold me my first new piece of high end gear back in the
early 1990's -- a Musical Design SP-1 preamp, which was the least expensive
tube preamp he offered at Audio Unlimited. I still have it. Partly because
John sold it to me. We connected, as I'm sure he did with many others. He was
the kind of guy I wanted to be in my own business. Over the years on trips out
West Linda and I had several visits with John and his wife, Pam. Once we had
to double back the next day because we left our camcorder battery charging in
his wall. Another time, having had dinner with them, we returned to his new
large listening room where he introduced us to the music of Hugh Masekela,
playing Coal Train through large Tannoy Churchill coaxial speakers driven
by Boulder electronics. They had recently been thrilled to hear him perform
the piece live in Denver and he let that train roll right through his
listening room. John lived large. His contributions to the High End will be
extolled by many others. But in my sadness with wet eyes the words of my
former minister come to mind: To live in hearts that love is not to die. A
piece of him carries on in me. John was a do-er. I'm sure he wants us to
keep the music rolling, so in his memory I put my shoulder to the ball.
The trip to
Montreal has always included an incident, usually weather induced, but not
this year. With the show seeming to move closer to spring each year all I have
to report is that my 1972 vintage Sierra Design sleeping bag still keeps me
warm in the Hotel Tracker on the night before I arrive. I parked six levels
beneath the Hilton Montreal Bonaventure and checked in as the Press Day
opened on Thursday.
A special
presentation was planned for noon in the Totem room, so I started there only
to discover that it was pretty quiet and devoid of people. I moved on to the LG
room where I was readily convinced by Yogi Bear that the new LG 3D technology
that comes bundled with four passive (non-powered) eyeglasses
is vastly superior to the prior technology that required expensive powered 3D
glasses. For $40 more you get five additional passive eyeglasses. You can even
watch 3D lying down if you're a horizontal couch potato and are reluctant to
mount the TV on the ceiling. This technology is already in the stores.
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MBL
showed a poster of their new entry level Corona series that is coming out this
summer and had a $20K stand mounted monitor from that series on silent
display. A smaller $12K monitor is in the works, too. I doubled back several
times to this room, but they were always playing the big rig comprised of
units one series down from the top of the line. New to this high series was an
asynchronous DAC capable of 96kHz. When they find a chip capable of 192kHz
that meets their standards they will be able to just plug that in, I was told.
Returning to the Totem
room at the appointed time I caught the presentation of a pair of custom
painted Tribe wall hanging home theater speakers to a silent auction for the DeDe
Fortin Foundation that helps the mentally ill. That would be Vince
Bruzzese in the photo, of course. Later, I saw the long
table with a wide variety of audio related gear that had been donated by
various manufacturers and vendors for this cause. The Totem Tribe had a
distinctive pop art/graffiti theme. I've long been a fan of treating the
loudspeakers as an artist's canvas and this was an excellent example.
I had to go across the hall
to the Audioville room to actually hear a pair of the
new Totem Element Series speakers. This was the
3-way floorstander Metal model ($13K). They were driven by conrad
johnson tube monoblocks ($25k). At the front end was a Bryston
BDP-1 Digital Player with USB inputs that is native to whatever source you
plug into it. It does have to be fed into a DAC, however. I believe a Rega
CD player was filling that role, along with the new c-j ET-5 preamp ($10K)
according to Steve Nicola.
Next door in the Oracle
room they were presenting their new Paris turntable which is a modern day
version of the original Paris table introduced in 1985. It uses many of the
high end parts from their Delphi VI model which continues in production. Same
motor, same pulley, belt, power supply and PEEK material (a kind of high
performance nylon), though the bearing design is bushing rather than a dual
tripod design used in the Delphi. The Paris is decked out with a Project
arm that Oracle has modified by incorporating a trough with viscous damping
fluid near the bearing end of the arm. The table alone goes for $3150,
the tonearm $950, the cartridge $1150, or $5000 for the entire package. I saw
this table in several rooms at the show, more often in red which was very eye
catching. Here, they were also using the Paris phono stage at $1495. The Paris
table is a whole other animal than the Delphi design, looking more like a
jazzed up Rega. I liked this new styling a lot and expect it will draw the
attention of new clientele for Oracle. There were a lot of people talking in
that room, but from what I could tell, it sounded pretty good.
The Ocellia Calliope.21
Signature loudspeakers ($14k) were a smaller version of the model I raved
about last year. Twin super tweeters flanked the full-range driver in a
cabinet that was somewhat more beefy than last year. These units have a hinged
back door, but the host was reluctant to let anyone look inside after my
revealing photos last year. I liked the sound better last year in the much
larger, more reverberant room, but it was still quite good here. And this
being press day, who knows how much better it might have sounded by Saturday
with more break-in and a little room tweaking. The source was a Verdier
turntable with a custom plinth and an EMT arm and
copper ring to weight down the rim of the LPs.
An Ocillia phono stage
preceded the Ocillia Quaero Preamplifier Signature. Since the speaker is a
very high efficiency design, they were driving it with a dual mono low powered
stereo tube amplifier.
In the open hallway on the
lower level I was curious about Sono.Technique and was
treated to a demonstration of their studio gear and computer software for
editing digital files. This stuff puts power and control in the
hands of the musicians, if they so choose. On the table was a manual for the Trinnov
ST-2 loudspeaker/room optimizer and on the computer screen was the Pyramix
Virtual Studio by Merging Technologies, a Swiss
company.
In the next booth was another
production/studio company that makes just the DAC I've been looking for. Many,
if not most, digital TVs today do not have analog outputs. So what's a guy
like me who prefers TV sound coming from a high end stereo rig to do? This
little puppy from Gefen has optical and coax
digital inputs and RCA outputs. It is powered by a little 5V power
supply. No fuss, no muss. And it is as small as it looks... all for about $82,
plus the optical cable and interconnects.
Monitor Audio
was displaying their new Gold GX series for audio or video. The small stand
mounted monitor in red bubinga wood ($2000) sports a ribbon tweeter and a
special ribbed woofer. The surround speaker was also quite nice with a 12V
trigger that allows you to switch from bi-pole to di-pole with a remote
control.
Coupdefoudre's
room was practically a repeat of last year, except they upped the ante from
the Wilson Audio Sasha loudspeakers to their top of
the line Alexandria model. As before, Peter McGrath
was on hand for room set-up and to provide playback from his repertoire of
master recordings. Remember the old saying..."Porsche, there is no
substitute"? Well, there is no substitute for having a master engineer
set up a room with his own personal recordings, either. Peter treated me to
some classical and solo piano he had personally recorded and it took very
little imagination believe I was present at the performance. He also indulged
me with an obscure recording of Kieth Richards doing some reggae. The
performance of these loudspeakers is simply spectacular not only by the way
they reproduce music, but also by the way they seemingly don't. Close
your eyes and they completely disappear. Compared to the Sasha, it is both
more and better. One notable difference was the limitless height of the
recording venue. Another might be the greater ease of the presentation or
effortlessness of the Alexandria 2. The system created no anxiety or stress
even with loud crescendos. Later I chided Luke Manley, whose 600 watt VTL
monoblocks were used, for trying to crush the Alexandria 2 speakers. With their 96dB
efficiency they could be used with a good 300B SET amp in a smaller room. At
$160,000 you might wonder if they represent a good value, especially
considering they deserve very fine components and cabling. A more
important question might be whether you have the time and dedication to
listening, as well as an appreciative ear for this level of investment. The
Alexandria 2 is certainly among the handful of finest loudspeakers in production
today and this was one of the very Best Rooms at the
show again this year. I am grateful for the opportunity to hear it.
Click
here for part 2 of Rick Becker's report.
High-Performance Audio Reviews
