J
The Sota Sapphire ($2,400) with a Dynavector 10X5 cartridge.
The Jolida JD801 ARC ($1475) with it’s inline digital filter,
EZ bias leds and Rowan factory mods, is now available in a variety of
faceplates; chrome (pictured), black and gold.
The Sound
Advantage/Ken
Haig room introduced their Roger Russell designed IDS speakers
($19,500 pr.). One of the most impressive sounding set of speakers at the show
was driven by a pair of McIntosh MC 501 power amps. The front end was a MDA
1000 D/A converter and a MS750 music server.
AK member Squidward’s
room featured a mix of DIY and modified gear. His “Cornholios” (Bob Crites
and Al Klappenberger modified Klipsch Cornwalls) sounded super smooth and
involving, driven by DIY single-ended tube gear.
AK member dnewman04’s
DIY phono pre was a custom built work of art.
Squidward’s
passive preamp in a cigar box featured a hand-wired stepped attenuator.
Later in the weekend, AK member RayW
auditioned his own creation in this room. His D’Appolito transmission line
design sounded very nice, especially given that they only had 5WPC SET amps
driving them.
Next up were the Bob
Cook rooms. Jim Salk
had some impressive designs, including the
Song
Tower
($1695/black, $1795/standard finishes, $2200/exotic finishes per pr.) which
are some of the finest sounding small floorstanders I’ve heard. With Audio
by Van Alstine Differential mono-blocks ($2200 ea.) the sound was
sublime.
Their adjacent room was tastefully treated and
was amongst a handful of rooms, which had tamed the 50 Hz room boom. Mr. Salk
displayed his beautiful prototypes ($TBA), again with Van Alstine Omega amps,
featured a midrange and a Morel MDT-33 tweeter in an open baffle design. The
woodwork was gorgeous, as it is with all of Jim’s speakers.
Pure Audio,
LLC featured the fabulous sounding Quad
ESL 2905 electrostatic speakers ($11,500 pr.). They were driven by Quad 909
amps @ 140 WPC ($1399 ea.) and the source was a Shanling 1500 ($3295).
High-Performance Audio Reviews
