The AXPONA 2023 Chronicles: Part 8
The fascinating 5th floor of premium audio gear.
Audio Expo North America 2023 Show Report By Rick Becker

Cinetec, Bryston, Clarus, Pure Fidelity, And Totem Acoustics
Cinetec is in Palos Hills, a suburb of Chicago about 23 miles southwest as Google routes the trip. The rig here was laden with Canadian products starting with the Pure Fidelity turntable from British Columbia. My photo is woefully inadequate for identifying components in the rack, but I assume there are some Bryston electronics there and the speakers, I can see, are from Totem. Clarus cables are engineered by Jay Victor and come from Orlando, Florida.

Audio Excellent, Atoll Electronics, ATOHM Loudspeakers, Sinfoni, Audio Development Laboratorio Audio, And Music For Pleasure
Audio Excellent LLC is the distributor of Atoll Electronique components and AtOhm speakers, both from France. Music for Pleasure is a retailer in Webster Grove, MO, a suburb of St. Louis, about five hours away from Chicago by car.

As you see above, they had a trio of AtOhm speakers and a rack full of Atoll electronics which I thought looked very nice in black in this room. I heard nice music from the white AtOhm GT1 monitors ($4500). The smaller GT2 floorstanders were $7500 and the taller GT3 floorstanders were $13k.

An Atoll IN100 Signature integrated amp, below the top component, was $2100, and the MS120 streamer / DAC / preamp (on top?) was $1600. The third item down was the SDA 300 all-in-one streamer / DAC / amplifier at $5500. Transparent The Wave speaker cables were $250 and Dynaudio speaker stands were $350. Everything here was reasonably priced and very solid entry-level gear.

Cinetec, Alta Audio, Clarus, And Modwright Instruments
This was a second room by Cinetec and it is not to be confused with the next room which also employed a bevy of ModWright components.

The music here was impressive coming from the Alta Audio Adam floorstanders in gloss black. I have to say I am much more attracted to the gloss black finish on this design than the wood veneers which are more commonly shown. There is something contrived about the wood veneer laid on a concave surface. Trees tend to grow straight in most cases. The gloss black allows the light to play on the contour in a way that accentuates the form without the materials contradicting it. It seems to be a KWA 150 Signature solid-state amplifier front and center that is driving the Alta Adams.

On top of the Lateral rack was a VPI Classic Signature turntable at $6399, a belt drive model. Below that was a ModWright PH 150 Reference tube phono stage with an outboard power supply. Then there was something by Mark Levinson and after that, a server by Naim. On the bottom shelf was likely the world premiere of the new LS 99 Balanced tube preamp ($6500), a slightly toned down and more economical version of their flagship LS300, which costs about $5k more. To the left of the rack on the carpet looks to be a power conditioner with power supplies for the preamp and phono stage. Sadly, the album by the Subdudes to the right of the stand was not being played.

ModWright Instruments And Studio Electric
The analog action resumed in the next room with more ModWright gear, this time emanating from Studio Electric m5 loudspeakers.

Here we go, back to the future again with a three-way speaker reminiscent of the JBL 100 and the KLH re-inventions mentioned earlier. Same basic cabinet proportions, stand-mounted. I'm guessing the HDF (high-density fiberboard) is used on the front baffle and the MDF is used everywhere else with real hardwood veneer. The price will be about $6700, I was told. A speaker like this could be just what I need for my third mid-life crisis — taking me right back to the 1970s but with higher resolution. That's probably the figured maple finish on the three-way above and walnut on the two-ways set to the back. White oak and rosewood are also offered. Note the two fine-line racing stripes on the top of each speaker — a nice touch of class.

That was a Pure Fidelity Harmony turntable in quilted maple finish with Encounter Mk4 tonearm ($10,645) fitted with a Stratos low output MC cartridge ($2k). Next to it in silver was a ModWright PH 9.0X tube phono stage with tube rectified power supply ($5250). On the next shelf in black was a ModWright Analog Bridge with Balance option ($3900) that lets you select between 6922 or 6SN7 tubes.

On the floor beneath the rack in silver was the power supply for the turntable sitting atop a Lumin T3 Network music player ($4990), a dual-mono design with built-in volume control with Lyle Lovett singing "You've Been So Good Up Til Now".

On separate stands beside each speaker was the world premiere of the new ModWright KWA 99 monoblocks with an introductory price of $7500. It features both Class A-A/B bias and Lateral MOSFETS. No power was given, but the classy meter goes up to 100 Watts. I expect this is a very good value.

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