Florida Audio Expo 2020 Show Report
Florida Audio Expo 2020 Show In Tampa, Florida.

Musical Surrounding At Florida Audio Expo 2020
DS-E1 optical cart. and Rogue Audio's impressive Cronus Magnum III!
Report By Steven R. Rochlin

  Garth Leerer of Musical Surroundings fame is always very welcoming and informative, with his room at Florida Audio Expo 2020 being most impressive too! A highlight of this room is the DS Audio, a division of Digital Stream Corporation, E1 Optical Cartridge System ($2750). Before i get more into the other bits, lemme spit at ya some cool things about this photo cartridge. It dices, it slices, it makes thousands of Julienne fries. Oh, wait, please allow me to start again.

The new DS Audio DS E1 cartridge represents a breakthrough in pricing, offering the company's optical pickup technology at a most reasonable cost. Using the same design philosophy as DS Master 1 and DS-W2 and DS002, the DS-E1 scales back on some of the exotic parts while still offering many of the virtues heard in their far more expensive stable mates. The DS E1 employs the aluminum cantilever with an Elliptical stylus similar to those used in the more expensive DS Audio cartridges. The DS-E1 cartridge body is machined from aluminum and echoes the distinctive design of the company's other models.

DS Audio's DS-E1 is said to "represent a breakthrough in pricing, offering the company's optical pickup technology at a most reasonable cost. Using the same design philosophy as DS Master 1 and DS-W2 and DS002, the DS-E1 scales back on some of the exotic parts while still offering many of the virtues heard in their far more expensive stable mates. The DS E1 employs the aluminum cantilever with an Elliptical stylus similar to those used in the more expensive DS Audio cartridges. The DS-E1 cartridge body is machined from aluminum and echoes the distinctive design of the company's other models," says the company.

To go along with the optical cartridge is DS Audio's DS E1 phono preamplifier ($1500), their most affordable equalizer with RCA outputs. As with all of DS Audio's line of optical phono cartridge preamplifiers, it features excellent signal-to-noise and minimal filtering. At the heart of its circuit, they are greatly reducing the number of components required. This also allows for a more compact form factor that is proudly manufactured in Japan.

The Remainder of Musical Surroundings' system at Florida Audio Expo 2020 included the AMG Giro turntable with 9WT tonearm and outboard power supply ($14,250), the excellent Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III vacuum tube integrated amplifier ($2995), Magnepan's very reasonably priced .7 loudspeakers ($1400, plus various accessories by DS Audio including their ION-001 Vinyl Ionizer ($1800), ST 50 Stylus Cleaner ($80), and Clearaudio Double Matrix Professional Sonic Record Cleaner ($6000).

Within Ron Nagle's review of the Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III vacuum tube integrated amplifier he said, "The performance of Rogue Audio's Cronus Magnum III is very easy to listen to and satisfying in both modes. I could easily build a very rewarding system around this integrated amplifier with phono stage. Rogue Audio has my admiration for the overall build quality and sonic performance of their Cronus Magnum III musical instrument." You really should read Ron Nagle's review of the Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum III at this link to learn why this is truly an outstanding unit!

---> Back to main FLAX 2020 show report page.