One of the rooms offering
incredibly sound was from Herron Audio. Using their VTPH-1MC phono stage,
VTST-1 preamplifier and M150mono blocks, Miles Davis Kind of Blue was
sounding enormously rich and captivating. In fact it was so good it made me
want to forget about equipment for the rest of the day and simply enjoy the
music. Need i say more?
Another year, another chance for me to salivate all over the
Hovland HP-100 ($4,495, phono stage adds $850) preamplifier. It is not as
though i have been asking to review this unit for, oh, about three years now
and they used the "P" word to me (as in Promise). Well, they said
the squeaky wheel gets the grease so i am going to harass Hovland online
within these pages as much as possible until one arrives at my door for
review. Hmmm, how many ways can i make fun of Alex Crespi, their representative?
Ohhh, you will just have to wait and see. Maybe i should call him a
smart Alex? Or a nickname such as Alex the phall...
We will huff, and puff and have this woofer blow your house
in. From Huff Loudspeaker Company comes the exotic System Three Omni
($12,450). Using a unique 360 degree dispersion, their speakers produce an
amazingly wide and deep soundscape. As for bass, the round unit you see behind
the stand-mounted satellite was majestically producing some impressive lower
frequency support! They claim in-room frequency response to below 20 Hz and i
believe it.
At the Acoustic Sounds booth was none other than the great
blues axe man Jimmy D. Lane (right) digging the live tunes by Jimmy Lee
Robinson. Acoustic Sounds really knows how to offer great music to music
lovers all around the world. In fact they just produced their very first DVD!
From none other than the living legend David "Honeyboy"
Edwards (above left) comes his new 24-bit/96 kHz DVD. This DVD shows live
footage of Honeyboy in the studio as the DVD was being recorded! A must have
for anyone who loves jazz, blues and legendary music.
Marchand Electronics were showing their 4-way tube electronic
crossover XM126-4 ($3,495). In fact Enjoy the Music's own Bill Gaw uses their
electronic crossover to good effect! A great product for those looking for an
tube-based electronic crossover.
Continuing in their traditions of offering extremely high
quality products with ultra-high tolerance construction techniques is none other
than Oracle. Their popular turntable and CD unit are now joined by a matching
150 watt per channel integrated solid-state amplifier! The Oracle Integrated Amplifier
1.5si ($10,000) has five unbalanced inputs (RCA), one unbalanced input (XLR)
and a tape loop. Frequency response is claimed as being an outstanding 10 Hz
to 200 kHz +-3db! The dampening factor is rated at greater than 400!
Interchannel crosstalk is a very impressive 95 db while THD is les than 0.1%.
This entire package weighs in at 100 lbs.
Newcomer Perpetual Technologies innovative P-1A. This
inexpensive DSP-based unit is for correcting the detrimental room acoustics we
virtually all deal with each and every day. It can take your CD transport's
44.1 digital signal and upsample it to output full 24-bit/96kHz resolution
through a digital-to-digital conversion process! Suggested prices you ask?
Only $950 for the standard P-1A, $399 for the speaker only software upgrade,
$699 for the Room Upgrade Kit. Also new is their P-3A Digital-to-Analog
Converter with 24/96 to 24 /192 plus DSD compatibility for $599.
High-Performance Audio Reviews
