Home Entertainment 2003 Hi-Fi and Home Theater Event

Thursday Page 2
By Steven R. Rochlin
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  HSU is just about to release their STF (Single Tuning Frequency) series of subwoofer that are value-oriented (boom for the buck) subwoofers. An 8-inch subwoofer with four small upper frequencies units will/retail at $499. Built-in 150-watt amplifier for the subwoofer is also included.

 

History buffs take note as here is Heathkit's AD-1308 spectrum analyzer (circa 1984 or so). This is one Granddaddy of wireless units that can also be mounted on 19-inch rack via an optional adapter. It has both white and pink plus various levels of dB sensitivity adjustment. It also has peak/hold feature. Ah yes, a blast from the past!

 

hp (Hewlett-Packard) had a room at the show with both their computer and imaging products. Seen here is their DVD writer dvd300e ($399) has a speed of 4x for DVD+RW rewritable. It has USB2 and FireWire ports.

 

The Fischer & Fischer model SL450 ($16,000 in silver color) and SL1000 Reference ($53,860 in black) loudspeakers have special features including the entire cabinet is made from slate and Dynaudio tweeters mated with Fisher-designed slot-type emitter bass driver. Both loudspeakers are tri-wireable. The SL450 has a single 6.5-inch mid-woofer and side mounted 10-inch woofer. The SL1000 Reference has one tweeter, two 6.5-inch midrange, and four 8-inch subwoofers.

 

Florence Audio has their model Full Range ($18,000) that uses the Moth Audio Cicada driver for midrange and some highs while a Focal inverted dome tweeter and SEAS 10-inch woofer fills in the frequency extremes. Sensitivity is 95dB/W/m with an overall frequency response from 18Hz to 30kHz. The Pololena II stand mounted unit ($8,000 to $9,000 depending on finish) has the same tweeter, yet has a Focal 7-inch midrange/bass unit. Sensitivity is 94dB/W/m with a frequency response from 20Hz to 25kHz.

 

B&O had a room with their Beolab 2 subwoofer ($2,500) that has a built in 150 watt amplifier driving three 8-inch woofers.

 

Sound Application favored by our very own Bill Gaw and Dick Olsher, had his power line filtering devices ($2,200 to $4,200). A Goldmund front end drove the Talon Audio Firebird loudspeakers with diamond tweeters ($32,000).

 

In the JMlab/Wireworld/Bel Canto room was the new Bel Canto PL1 SACD/DVD-Audio universal player ($8,900) hooked to their Pre6 pre-amplifier ($3,800) that can be configured for many different inputs and upwards of eight channels of outputs (both balanced via XLR or single ended via RCA). This all supplied the Evo2 in mono mode ($2,900) producing close to 500 watts into an 8-ohm load. The mono configured amplifiers drove JMlab's Grand Utopia Beryllium loudspeaker ($80,000). These loudspeakers have an inverted dome Beryllium tweeter that reproduces upper frequencies to nearly 40kHz! The two midrange drivers are 6.5-inch sandwiched formulation units, while an 8-ich covers midbass and 13-inch driver handles the lowermost frequency down to 20Hz.

 

During the lunch seminar was none other than racecar enthusiast and pioneer within his industry Noel Lee of Monster Cable. He talked about the home theater experience that will include new Monster Cable loudspeakers (as seen within our Frankfurt show report) and other products. This will include their new Action Couch. As for what this new couch is, and the exact action you will get when on it, was not disclosed during this press event. Of course some action on a couch may be up to the consumer.

 

Tetra loudspeakers' Live ($5,500) and smaller Space ($3,500) both have their signature triangle design and ported cabinet. The Live uses Morel 8-inch woofer and ScanSpeak 1-inch silk soft dome tweeter. The Space has a 6-inch Morel woofer and 1-inch Morel treated fabric tweeter.

 

Lowther America had their model Medallion II ($4,200 with the DX4 driver) has additional internal sound dampening over a normal unit and uses Jena Labs wire. The driver is mounted onto this back horn loaded design and produces frequency response is from 55Hz to 20kHz with a sensitivity of 98dB/W/m. Thee loudspeakers were being driven by the Experience Music model Devotion 300B integrated monoblock amplifier ($9,500). It uses the TJ mesh plate 300B for output, 6C45P for input/driver, and 5AR4 for rectification.

 

TAD had their top of the range TAD Model 1 ($45,000) features a dual-concentric driver with Beryllium cone dome 1.25-inch tweeter mated with a 6-inch Beryllium midrange all held together by a custom cast aluminum basket. Then an 8-inch midbass and two 10-inch woofers. The cabinet is constructed of 52 layers of machined birch ply with integral cross bracing. Overall frequency response is 25Hz to 100kHz with a sensitivity of 90dB/W/m.

 

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