Hi-Fi News' Hi-Fi Show & AV Expo 2002

Sunday
Page 3

 

  The new Marantz DV12S1 DVD-Audio/Video (£2,500) player offers a plethora of outputs with capabilities including dts/Dolby Digital and it is THX Ultra certified.

 

Here is a world premiere of KEF's XQ series that fall midway between the Q Series and flagship Reference. Ferrari enthusiasts rejoice as seen here is the XQ5 in breathtaking Maranello red. This four-way bass reflex design includes two 6.5-inch woofers, a 6.5-inch Uni-Q midrange with centrally mounted 0.75 aluminum dome tweeter. Frequency response is from 45Hz to 55kHz (±3 dB) with a sensitivity of 90 dB/W/m. Finishes offered for the new XQ line include Graphite, Silver, Pearlescent White, Maranello Red or Maple. Speaking of Maranello and Ferrari, do not forget that in only a few days we will have a private, exclusive tour of the Ferrari facility online (click here)! For now you can see our Ferrari page by clicking here. Lastly, if you have not seen our exclusive Pininfarina facility tour, the company that gives visual designs to many Ferrari cars, please click here.

 

Keeping the world premiere's rolling... Ear's new 899 (£2,698) 70 watt per channel integrated amplifier is ready to go, yet also offers direct input for amplification only plus pre-amplifier outputs for those who desire bi-amplification. Talk about wonderful flexibility all in one unit! A total of eight KT90s operated in "Class A" pentode for output while 12AX7 and 6AQ8 tubes are within the driver stage.

 

Never seen until now (more world firsts) is the EAR 324 (£1,800) solid-state phono stage that offers two inputs, MM and MC capability with variable loading, absolute phase inversion, stereo/mono and both RCA and balanced XLR outputs.

 

Pioneer's two week old bouncing baby DV-656A DVD-Audio/SACD player (£400) has features that reads like an alphabet with DVD-Audio, DVD-Video, VCD, CD-R, CD-RW, MP3, DVD-R, DVD-RW, SACD, Dolby Digital and dts. Six channels of 24-bit/192kHz decoding is provided for, as is Y, Pb, Pr video output.

 

Those looking to achieve top-end quality with solid-state devices would probably seek out Classé as their Omega Reference system includes their CD/SACD player (£11,995), Pre pre-amplifier (£10,495) and on the outsides are the Mono 500 watts each monoblock amplifiers (£11,995).

 

In a wonderful feat of mechanical engineer I present to you the new Kuzma Air Line tonearm (approximately £4,250). This linear tangential tonearm incorporates an air bearing for virtually frictionless operation. Using the latest of technology in manufacturing, the gap between the shaft and bearing is a mere 10 microns of a millimeter!

 

Ever more World premieres as Karan Acoustics' KA S 270 stereo amplifier (£7,000) was in the Audiofreaks room. As the worldwide distributor of the Karan products, Audiofreaks were glad to be distributing Karan as these products are hand made and use power supplies with minimal internal resistance. Massive aluminum chassis contain the 100% "Class A" amplification stages used within their products.

 

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