Home Entertainment 2003 Hi-Fi and Home Theater Event

Thursday Page 3
By Steven R. Rochlin
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  Conrad-johnson, while not officially at the show, had their Premiere 17LS tubed pre-amplifier employed within a system. This unit, while also having one reside in my personal reference system, offers five inputs, two tape facilities and a unit volume adjustment via relays. Amazing sound and very reliable tube pre-amplifier matched by wonderful visual design.

 

Alón by Acarian's new Lotus Elite Signature ($8,000) features is an all Alnico magnet design plus dipolar midrange and tweeter. Lower frequencies are produced by two 8-inch composite carbon fiber cone woofers.

 

Totem Acoustic Hawk loudspeaker ($2,295) is quite an impressive sounding thin loudspeaker with its 1-inch titanium metal dome tweeter and 5.25-inch Revelator midrange/bass driver specifically made for Totem. The ported cabinet has WBT loudspeaker binding posts, claw decoupling system, and the -3dB point is from 32Hz to 23kHz.

 

Silverline Audio Technologies had their Bolero ($8,000) with a T330 Esotar soft dome tweeter, 15WLQ Esotec 5-inch midrange, and 24W100X long-throw 9-inch woofer. Overall frequency response is from 28Hz to 32kHz with a sensitivity of 92dB/W/m.

 

Quantum's new SymphonyPro EMF conditioner ($600) is said to clear out electromagnet fields that can degrade the sound quality of a music reproduction system.

 

Art Audio had their monoblock PX25 tube amplifier ($10,500 pr) that produces 6 watts with high current. The chassis is hand polished stainless steel with 24 karat gold plated accents.

 

The Cain & Cain Studio Ben ES loudspeaker ($12,500) has a special banana fiber full range cone and Alnico supertweeter a mounted in a rear loaded horn cabinet that stands six feet high.

 

Musical Fidelity's new KWP pre-amplifier ($12,000) and KW Power Amplifier ($24,000 for both monoblocks and separate power supply) are part of their limited range of units. TriVista tubes are within the pre-amplifier. They also have choke regulation so think of true ultimate exotica to the n^th degree.

 

Shanling's new SP-80 fifty-watt monoblock tube amplifiers ($2,495 pr.) and SCD-T200 tubed SACD player. The monoblocks have a pair of EL34 tubes operating in push-pull.

 

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