Top Audio & Video 2000

 

  In the Opera room were the Italian made, glorious looking Unison Research Smart 845 monoblock amplifier and their S8 integrated amplifier. The Smart 845 uses, of course, the 845 directly heated triode for output. Output impedance can be set for 4 or 8 ohms. As for the S8 integrated amplifier, it also uses the 845 output tube that produce about 24 watts per channel. Three 12AU7 tubes are also employed in this integrated amplifier design.

 

The Dynaudio room also featured Mr. Mark Levinson's Red Rose Music Model-1 Silver Signature monoblock amplifiers (61,000,000 Lira). It includes a top-mounted bias monitor looked that looked way cool. Using four SOVTEK 6L6WXT for output, four SOVTEK 6SN7 and one Raython JAN 5842WA this beauty produces 170 watts per channel at 8,6,4, or 2 ohms. Claimed frequency response is 3.5Hz to 100kHz (+-3dB). My usual caveat when dealing with Mr. Mark Levinson from my own personal experience, ALWAYS use a credit card or some other payment form which you have good recourse.

 

The above sexy looking amplifier is the L'Ergo manufacture L'AIAR tube amplifier (18,000,00 Lira). Of things i wish the US market enjoyed, this would surely be one of them. Two 211 output tubes in push-pull configuration offer a total of 35 watts per channel. Two 5687 and two 5814 tubes are also in use. As you can see, there is an outstanding lighted bias meter.

Seen below is the L'Ergo Leron loudspeaker (left) wrapped in glorious wood. Two 210mm woofers, two 180mm midbass drivers and one 29mm dome tweeter give the Leron a frequency response of 29-20,000 Hz. To the right is their Odeon giving quite impressive highs by using a ribbon tweeter. The lower frequencies are produced by two 110mm midrange/bass drivers. Frequency response for this model is claimed as 50-20,000 Hz. Lastly, a relatively small phono stage seemed really intriguing. They also make tube based electronic crossovers (among other things).

 

Linn's Anthonio Trebbi was proudly welcoming the new Kivor system (see our CEDIA coverage for more information). We will be offering more details about this system during our London show report next week. Stay tuned!

 

Click here for Sunday's coverage.