Report By Rick Becker
Page 6
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The Gallo room was one I was looking forward to, but the
presentation was unfortunately, fairly limited to a surround sound
demonstration with a drum corps video, exciting, though it was. It used
an Arcam DVD player, AV-8 processor and amplifiers, which provided
excellent video, but acoustically, I was a little under-whelmed, perhaps
simply because it was a surround sound set-up. The most rewarding part
was actually looking at the loudspeaker. The ads portray the Reference
IIIs from tweeter level, suggesting that they are much larger than they
actually are. The design I found to be completely fascinating and well
executed. Forget the grilles, unless you have babies crawling around.
They rival the original B&W Nautilus in styling originality.
I'm 5'9", and here is what they look like from my eye-level:
For those, like me, who haven't been paying attention, there is a new,
larger A'Diva 5" ball loudspeaker to supplement the original 4" Micro.
I believe it was the new A'Diva loudspeaker playing in a smaller video
presentation off to one side in the room. Visually, they were very
unobtrusive, and come in a variety of decorator colors. Sound good, too.
Nola, spelled backward, is Alón, as you've probably heard by now.
I won't discuss politics here. This was my first exposure to this line
and the $45K Proteus loudspeaker was very impressive. A conrad-johnson
Act 2 pre-amplifier fed a pair of c-j 140 monoblocks. The CD player was a
$3300 Lecteur, top loading model with separate power supply and tube
analog stage. The wood sides were a nice complement to the gloss black
finish. While the sound was a bit laid back, it was very smooth and easy
to listen to. Cabling was by Soundstring.
Wilson Benesch loudspeaker combined with Cyrus electronics in
two systems in one of the larger rooms, which I think was too large for either
system. I've certainly heard the W-B sound much better, and it has
always been in a more reasonably size room. Another factor was probably
the doublewide doors that were left open to attract visitors. I've
commented on the very attractive contemporary-styled Cyrus equipment in my
Montreal reports, and at least people had the opportunity to view these
products, if not hear them at their best. The loudspeaker shown here was
the smaller Curve ($7300 in standard finishes), a 2.5 way floorstander shown
in gloss burr walnut. The wood panels on W-B are merely decorative
accents to the steel and carbon fiber high-tech cabinets. A variety of
fine finishes are available. The larger system featured the Chimera,
their reference floorstander at $20,900.
Damoka, a New York City dealer for some very high-end equipment put
on a very special and unusual display in one of the largest banquet rooms.
Two systems faced each other across the opposing rows of chairs. The
system I heard was fronted by an EMT 927 turntable (note the spring
suspension) and a $30K CEC/Weiss transport/DAC digital front end.
Lamm electronics were in the middle and two huge Siemens Bionor
loudspeaker systems, circa 1957, filled one end of the room. They looked
like they had originally been installed in a theater or auditorium, and
probably represent state of the art in-wall design of the 1950's.
Loudspeaker dampening in those days meant draping canvas over the drivers,
shown here turned back to expose the horn driver.
The system at the other end was also intriguing with a Micro Seiki
turntable front end and Tannoy Autograph Professionals, circa 1968.
They don't make grill cloth like this any more.
Tannoy Autograph Professional, ‘68
2nd Floor
I stopped in at Monster Cable's Eleganza foray into home theater
furniture and surround sound M-design loudspeakers. The furniture was
very large, like much of the imported furniture from the Far East and not
terribly refined from my furniture perspective. Of course, I live back East,
not in California. Perhaps it will find a home in large contemporary new homes
but it looked over-scaled for much of the existing home base. While this
might seem like a new idea to many people, I remember back in the 1950's
when loudspeaker, and at times entire audio systems, were mounted in really
fine furniture called a "credenza." Of course with monaural sound,
there was zero concern about stereo imaging. The M-design loudspeakers,
particularly the line source hybrid ones used for the main front positions,
looked very interesting, but time was running out, and I could not afford to
wait for the next live demonstration. Luck of the draw.
Andy Singer (Sound by Singer) put together four major presentations
in Gramercy A and Gramercy B that were quite good. Each of these large
rooms was subdivided to include two distinct systems. I caught the Sony
SACD surround/video presentation where clips from Seabiscuit were shown
through a Runco projector, and Bel Canto electronics drove JM
Labs loudspeakers. With my tangential connection to the horse world
through my sister, this demo pushed a number of emotional buttons. The
picture and sound were excellent, but I was afraid to ask the price. On
cue, we shuffled into the other half of the room...
...where we were treated to a premium stereo system with a tightly scripted
presentation to highlight its strengths. Balanced Audio Technology
electronics powered a pair of JM Labs Nova Utopia Be loudspeakers.
First we heard a cut from the Rolling Stones Stripped cd in 44.1kHz
up-sampled, which gave a highly transparent look into the recording venue of
this unprocessed recording. Then we heard James Taylor from Larger Than
Life in SACD, again, a voice that should be familiar to most show goers.
And finally, we heard a cut from Sam Cook's Live at the Copa in SACD.
This was a system that probably came in about $200K, and was also one of the
best rigs at the show. But what caught my eye was on silent display:
BAT's new VK-55 is a 55 wpc all black stereo amplifier that comes home for
about $4K, complete with auto biasing circuitry and high current dual-triode
6C33C-B tubes. The stereo version is updateable to a 110 watt monoblock,
should the need arise. I had a very pleasant, but brief, chat with
BAT's Victor Khomenko in the hall afterward.
In the second large Sound by Singer room, a Musical Fidelity system
featuring their Kw 500 integrated amplifier with separate power supply, took
signals from their X-Ray V2 CD player (as transport) and TriVista Dac 21 with
signals re-sampled to 192kHz. Their M-1 turntable was on display, but
not used. The loudspeakers were the Thiel 7.2 and the music was
pretty spectacular and up front, on the accurate side of accurate. The
Thiels are a difficult load to drive, but the Musical Fidelity had no trouble
handling them in this large room that was divided in two with a wall of
curtains.
On the other side was a much higher priced system with a dCS front
end, VTL preamplifier with separate power supply and the new $20K VTL
S-400 stereo power amplifier (son of the Sigfried). The loudspeakers
were, again, the esteemed JM Labs Nova Utopia Be. In spite of the
fact that the noise floor of the rooms along this corridor was clearly audible
from all the major league demonstrations, it was also clear that this was a
superb system and among the very best at the show. I was treated to a
hats-off demonstration of the S-400, which included a computer hook-up on the
rear for diagnostics, and a series of switches on the front panel, behind a
removable shield, that would call up various data like the number of hours on
the tubes, and next week's winning lotto numbers.
Of course to drive a big rig like this you need lots of power. Note
the CD in the photo for scale.
In the Paradigm/Anthem room a very nice surround demonstration was
presented using the new Paradigm Signature Series that sounds to me like a
clear step above their Reference Series. The tall floorstanding models
were priced at $6K. I look forward to hearing them in a stereo rig
someday.
Weary as I was by this hour, I stumbled into the Madison Suite on the 2nd
floor for one last demonstration sponsored by Audio Connection in New
Jersey. I immediately recognized the Vandersteen 5A loudspeaker,
which are about as ordinary looking a pair of $15K loudspeaker you can buy,
and also one of the best. They were driven by two mighty Rogue Audio
Zeus stereo amplifiers ($6795 ea.) running as bridged monoblocks in triode
mode, putting out 250 watts each. The tube line stage was a Rogue
prototype reference model that was certainly doing no harm. Analog front
end was a Clearaudio Master Reference turntable with an Aesthetix
Audio Rhea phono stage. Digital front end was a $35K Wadia
rig. Cabling was by that pesky Kubala-Sosna company, which I
learned was not an obscure Czech company, but located across the river
somewhere in Jersey. ($2700 interconnects, $3100 loudspeaker cables).
And once again, Harmonic Resolution Systems racks, $6-9K, depending on
size and finish. I sat down, listened, and then scribbled four words:
Just sucks me in! This means I really liked it, and it was
one of the very best. I don't normally give "Best of" awards in my
show report, but I'm going to break rank here, and award this room the "Best Floral Arrangement of the Show."
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