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Home Entertainment 2004
Hi-Fi and Home Theater Event

Report By Rick Becker
Page 3
Click here to e-mail reviewer

 

  Next door, in the mbl room was another system of excellence that produced a considerably different sound than the Joseph/Manley room.  The omni-directional radial tweeter and midrange drivers of the mbl loudspeakers create a very nice sense of space that allows one to walk around the room without the soundstage collapsing.  The sound was very tightly focused, and very smooth, but also very cool or dry.  I would peg it at the accurate side of accurate, and attribute it to the solid-state nature of the components.  I though about how beautiful the mbl amplifier with its signature gloss-black finish would look between my gloss-black Kharma loudspeakers, but dismissed the idea as too much of a good thing.  In contrast, in a smaller system on a side wall, stand mounted Radialstrahler-Compact mbl 121 monitors in a gloss-red finish were very attractive with side firing woofers and front facing ports, an unusual configuration, to say the least.  This $10K monitor uses the same tweeter and mid drivers as the $45K model 101E.  Whatever the color, you can color the mbl gear expensive.

 

 

Analysis Plus had a lot of cable product on display in another large room, as well as a system playing with their Golden Oval loudspeaker cable ($6320/8'pr).  Electronics were Simaudio Moon driving  DeVore Fidelity's Silverback Reference loudspeaker ($14K).  The literature describes a lot of technology in the crossover and cabinet design of these Brooklyn-made loudspeakers.  They sounded very smooth to me, but with the conversations going on at the cable end of the room, it was difficult to get a real fix on them.  Fortunately, they were wise enough to leave the gorilla logo on the backside of the loudspeaker.  One of the sales reps took a seat beside me and I was surprised to look over and see my friend Dave LoVerde, whom I knew from earlier days at The Analog Shop back home.  Always a gentleman, it was good to see him again.

I sat through a surround sound & home theater demonstration at Outlaw Audio where they were offering enticing show specials on pre/processor — amplifier combinations.  They seemed to be featuring their LFM-1 subwoofer at $579.  On a table at the back of the room were three new, yet to be introduced, products.  One was the upcoming 1070 receiver with 7 channels @ 65 watts, with DVI switching, for under $1000.  The other, my favorite of the three, and destined to become a classic, is the RR2150, The Last Great Stereo Receiver, with built-in bass management.

 

 

6th Floor

 Jumping up to the 6th Floor I found another impressive room.  This time it was the Hyperion Audio room, a brand that I was totally unfamiliar with.  A Sony CD player fed the Hyperion preamplifier ($1495) and power amplifier (also $1495).  The loudspeaker was their HPS-938/HPS-938L that looked like an awkward Watt/Puppy copy but contained very special Hyperion designed drivers.  Did I say this was a very impressive room?  That's what my ears told me when I closed my eyes.  We will be hearing more about this company in the future, I suspect.

 

 

From the unfamiliar to the very familiar, I stepped into the Tetra Loudspeakers room and greeted Adrian Butts with a smile and a handshake.  Adrian saved my Montreal report when my Sony digital camera temporarily and mysteriously malfunctioned.  On this morning he was playing his largest model, which has evolved slightly over the years since its inception.  The Dynaudio tweeter he originally used went out of production, so he switched to a new Scanspeak, which necessitated crossover changes.  Porting was also added to allow use in larger rooms.  This particular pair was finished with wood stain on the fronts and black sides and back, and looked rather conservative.  In the past, I've seen it with much more wild combinations of finishes.  Nonetheless, it sounded as good as my distant memory, driven by a Birdland pre-amplifier/DAC ($1850) and Birdland mosfet amplifier with digital bias control putting out a mere 18 wpc.  An EAD DVD Master spun the CDs.  The choice of equipment rack was quite appropriate, picking up on the pyramid shape of the heads of the Tetras.  Rumor has it that these loudspeakers were the hit of the party after hours.

 

 

I was hoping Vince Bruzzese would bring his Acoustic Cave listening environment, which he premiered at the Montreal show, but he reverted to his tried and true form of comparing two modestly priced Totem Acoustics loudspeaker in a smaller room.  I could barely squeeze into the doorway and catch his attention, just to let him know I stopped by.  The new Totem Rainmaker, another small two-way design, at either $900 or $950 (depending on which of my notes is correct), is carved from the same log as other Totem monitors, with real wood veneers, but at an even more affordable price.  Being driven by Totem's own integrated amplifier, the music was very inviting, as witnessed by the room jammed with show goers every time I passed by.  It sure sounded like another winner from where I stood.  On the other system in the room, it looked like the diminutive and affordable Arro floorstander was seeing comparative action. 

 

 

Yamaha is perhaps a household word, but not usually associated with high-end audio.  On silent display, however, I came across two pricey items that bear further investigation.  The first is the YPC-1 Passive Controller (preamp) at $2K, and the other the MX-D1, a 500 wpc twin monaural digital amplifier for $5K.  With these price tags, they should be serious products. Notice the back sides reflected in the mirror behind these pieces.

 

 

Spendor was playing their S-8e 2-way floorstander in dark cherry finish ($2899), driven by Perreaux ECO-2 CD player ($4K) and R-200i integrated amplifier ($6900).  These brands complimented each other nicely, but still ended up on Spendor side of the fence with a warm, classic sound that many people find very inviting and easy to listen to without strain or irritation.  I, for one, certainly enjoy tasting this flavor from time to time.

 

 

GTT Audio and Video is both a retailer of very high-end equipment and an importer of Kharma loudspeaker and cables.  Bill Parish set up a couple of rooms, one that topped $100K, and the other that came close to $200K.

Half of the difference in price was in the loudspeaker alone, and involved two world premiers.  With the highly acclaimed 3.2FE two-way model ($21K) was premiered the Kharma Ceramique Subwoofer ($7K). (The black box behind the subwoofer in the photo is the vacuum pump for the Walker turntable).

 

 

In the more expensive room, was premiered the Kharma Midi Exquisite-DE with diamond tweeters ($75K), biamplified by yet another world premiere: two pair of Lamm ML2.1 SET monoblocks ($29,290 pr.).  While it was clear to me that the Midi Exquisite had a superior high end, I will be the first to admit that my aging ears do not fully appreciate the capabilities of the diamond tweeter.  The black holes in the ceramic midrange driver are used to eliminate ringing.  In lower priced Kharmas, this ringing is addressed in the crossover.

 

 

The rest of each room was also first class, with Walker Audio Prosecenium Gold turntables ($27K) and Lamm L2 line stages ($14K+) in each room. Other components varied from one room to the next: Walker phonostage in one room, Lamm phonostage in the other.  Lamm M1.2 Reference amps in one system; the aforementioned pairs of Lamm ML2.1 SET amps in the other.  One product that caught my eye, which should be of interest to most audiophiles, was the affordable Gingko Audio Cloud 10 platforms ($300 each), which absorb vibrations and clarify the sound.  Below, Stereophile's analog guru, Michael Fremer, asks Bill Parish to play a Frank Sinatra cut.  The only thing I would have asked for would have been a larger room, knowing first hand what kind of space the Kharmas can recreate.  Nonetheless, these two rooms were among the very best at the show.

 


Bill Parish and Michael Fremer

 

Joule Electra, JPS Labs and Merlin Music Systems have formed a tight team for a number of years, and the sound of this trio keeps getting better and better.  Judd Barber's VZN-100 tube monoblocks ($15K) are beautiful to look at and very transparent, as output-transformerless amps tend to be.  But I sensed even greater transparency this year, than ever before.  Having reviewed ERS paper, and knowing that Bobby Palkovic had experimented with it, I talked with him about it.  Just as I did, he found that it didn't work in the crossover of the loudspeaker, but worked exceptionally well wherever there was a chipset (CD players, DACs, and amplifiers).  He found a perfect home for it in the outboard Bam (bass augmentation module).  This latest version of the 2-way floorstanding VSM model, now the VSM-MX, comes in at $10K with gloss lacquered finish standard.  I'm sure there have been additional upgrades to the crossover, and the resulting increase in transparency puts these loudspeakers up there with the very best in the world.  I forgot to ask Bobby about the stand mounted TSM model, but a quick hop, skip and jump over to their website indicates that model has received similar MX upgrades.

In the hallway, I ran into Joe Skubinski, whose JPS In-Wall cable gives my system a 30 Amp dedicated line, and Superconductor+ loudspeaker cable I use in my reference system.  Another gentleman from Equi=tech, whose name escaped me, indicated that their balanced line conditioner was being used in the Joule/JPS/Merlin room.  Good show, gentlemen!  This room was another in the handful of best at the show.

 

 

Odyssey found a novel way to bring home their high value products by listing their products and prices on a rug spread between their loudspeakers.

While not quite Tibetan hand-knotted quality, it sure drove home the point.  I rave about this company every year in my Montreal reports, and they brought it all to a broader audience this year in New York.  Based on designs from the German Symphonic Line, the electronics are made here in the United States.  The loudspeakers come from Canada, I believe.

 

 

Of particular interest was a white turntable that I was told was one of only three made by Symphonic Line, and not for sale.

 

 

Click here for page 4

 

Click here to see a
complete listing of show exhibitors.

Click here to see our 2003 show coverage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

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