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High-Performance Audio Reviews
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My what a difference 1,800 miles makes, the Classic Audio room at the 2016 Capital Audiofest was at least 10 times the size of the room here, but after many hours of setup adjustments, the crew here made it work wonderfully well. John Wolff's T-3 speakers ($54,950 per pair) incorporate field coils for all the drivers, and they looked (but didn't sound) shoehorned into the medium sized room, parrots on top per norm. Downsized Atma-Sphere amps, M-60 Mk. II 3.3 monos ($7400/ per pair) and MP-1 Mk.3.3 preamp, ($16,600) fronted the beautiful horns.
The analog tape source came from United Home Audio, the Phase 12, UHA OPS-DC ($25,000) and has the latest improvement, all DC power, that Greg Beron said he had been thinking/working on for many years, in the outboard power supply. The P/S outputs only DC to the tape deck, and all the motors, lights, transport, and head amps run on DC without any AC inside the deck, quite an accomplishment. Purist Audio Design debuted their new Neptune series of cables and connected the equipment with AC, Balanced ICs, and Speaker cables.
The vinyl analog source was a Kuzma Reference table ($8,900) Tri-Planar Ultimate arm ($9,800) carrying a Van Den Hul Crimson Stradivarius cartridge. Louis and Ella were on the UHA tape deck when I came in, their voices focused and very real, no sibilance problem on "s", and the trumpet was clear and dynamically alive. The speakers vanished, great setup work, and next I heard Fleetwood Mac's "Sara (Sea of Love)", Stevie Nicks was emotional, the drum kit showed quick initial impacts, floating cymbals, and the piano was detailed and rich. When I came by Sunday, Greg played the Handel / Halvorsen Passacaglia for violin and cello, overwhelmingly moving, the strings were in the room dripping with emotion, great tone and stage. This was another of the very best rooms at RMAF.
---> Back to RMAF 2016 show report home page.
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