Battle of the Horns
Several people have told me to check out Carfrae Audio
for their unusual Lowther designs. What, Lowthers in the
car? Jim Carfrae quickly disabuses me of that notion as he
shows the Little Big Horn, a curvilinear back-loaded tratrix
horn. The cabinet design will appeal immensely to some eyes
and is so splendid it could be exhibited at the Museum of
Modern Art. Pictorially its big brother the Big Horn looks
equally grand. Like the Lowther DX4 drivers, but unlike the
famous American river and battle names, they originate in
England and are imported at great expense, $17,500 and $35,000
respectively.
But the sound! God, the sound! Best of all, it beats
me how such volume and such bass, at least down to 40 Hz I’d
judge, can emerge from just one 8” driver so cleanly, and
with great imaging too. If not for the price I’d have a pair
in my home today. Seriously. This, despite nondescript demo
music. Huh? Sound trumps the music for once? Let it be...
At Impact Technology I revisit the scene of the crime
at the New York Stereophile Show, reported on in these pages
last June. Here are speakers of unusual design, Linaeum
descendants actually, that like the above models I could
conceivably live with for the rest of my life. What am I,
a polygamist? No, they just offer different joys but I realize
that with brides costing $22,000 one must be choosy.
In the outdoors hallway I run across an associate of
Keith Herron who has over the years, as mercilessly as Viktor
Khomenko once did, teased me about my polarity advocacy.
Funny guys! But Viktor reluctantly added a switch (easy to
do with balanced designs) after I convinced his business
partner Steve Bernardski through listening tests. Keith has
been a harder sell, but evidently he too has been made to
see the light because now I learn that polarity switches will
soon appear on Herron gear. Huzzah!
Lest anyone question my enthusiasm for this undeservedly
obscure branch of audio practice, let me declare, once again
and tirelessly (although tiresomely to some, no doubt), correct
polarity is the sine qua non of the listening experience.
Without it you are mired in muffled, nondescript sound and
inexpressive music. Until the listener learns to recognize
this phenomenon, he will be forever changing gear, especially
loudspeakers. Everyone will thank me sometime, in a better
world, for insisting on this.
Now to Avantgarde.
In years past Avantgarde have acquitted themselves
respectably, but rarely outstandingly, and I have heard them
at a Monrovia, California dealer’s sounding really wretched.
Yet have they been beloved by Jonathan Valin and crew. Well
here they are again and in the prime of life!
What is it at this Show? More good sound is happening
than ever before, in my experience.
Not only that, not that only, but it must be admitted
now that this report conflates the official CES and T.H.E.
Expo, between which your reporter shuttles daily.
Nevertheless, each venue sounds better than any year previous,
despite the somewhat desperate circumstances that attended
the Expo until the first day. A newly-built hotel with
unplastered rooms. Landscaping and lobby plants late in
arriving. Partitions not yet up. If fy electricity. But
it all worked out, with a huge sigh of relief from the
hard-nosed yet charming Mike Maloney.
Anyway, the Avantgardes are sounding quite well, driven
by gorgeous upright Audiopax 88 tube amps from... Brazil!
Excuse me, Brazil. The Hovland preamp is no slouch either,
nor the dCS digital gear. Best I’ve ever heard the
Avantgardes! Is this a great Show, or what?
Then immediately I duck into Lloyd Walker’s suite. Lloyd
importuned me earlier so I had promised. Still, no probemlo!
Walker Audio manufactures the Turntable Gorgeoso, called the
Walker Proscenium, best I’ve ever heard, but what do I know?
(A question, by the way, that should be asked of every audio
writer, preferably by himself first.) And here are Avantgardes
again! Coincidence, or...? Amplification is provided by Viva
and the sound surpasses even that in Avantgarde’s own room.
In fact, by a comfortable margin. They should send their people
here! Still, who knows why this is? Could it be the Proscenium
turntable instead of the dCS digital stuff? The Omega-Mikro
cables? The Italian, rather than the Brazilian amps?
You get my point.
There are no constants in audio and every variable that
can, asserts itself at these shows, and who’s to say for sure
what sounds right anyway?
Reviewers? Give me a break! Those guys are hopeless
addicts who have earned themselves a cheap supply by writing
English payably passably.
Designers? Hah! Talk about wearing blinders! Ever
visit one of them at home? It’s all about his stuff. Even
then, many can be very convincing, and sometimes correct.
But you have to be careful with alpha males, you know?
Retailers? ...I repeat, give me a break! They sell
status, not sound.
Few of those fellows can provide, in my opinion, the
finest sound. Yet they are thought of by almost everyone
as the top dogs. Thus I often pose this riddle: Which group
of people can build the best-sounding audio system? The joke
is, none of the above!
Who guessed the right answer? Which is: The conscientious
hobbyist! His (or her) system yields more music than almost
anything the “pros’1 can assemble. Ain’t that weird!?
Hence my regular injunction: Spending time earns greater
rewards than spending money.
Make that, my unpopular injunction. For who can say
such things and stay in business? Either as a retailer, or
a manufacturer, or a reviewer?
Anyway...
Not to disturb you...
This is a Show Report, after all...
Where you're entitled to an overview of new gear...
Like all the others do...
High-Performance Audio Reviews
