New York Audio Show Report 2014
Bringin' it to Brooklyn 
Show Coverage By Rick Becker

Part 1

Shortly, I was hustled into a small conference room where a rack of top of the line Audio Research gear and a near top of the line Basis turntable fronted a pair of Vandersteen 7 speakers driven by the new Vandersteen M7-HPA (high pass amplifier) monoblocks with short dedicated speaker cables. I took a front row seat and Richard Vandersteen held court for what I expected would be a brief introduction to his products. Instead, I was treated to a seminar on the importance of the interaction between amplifier and loudspeaker by one of the foremost designers in the industry. I've long known that the upper end of the Vandersteen line used a very high quality built-in amp for the woofer, but with the M7-HPA oil cooled amplifier he takes his expertise to the midrange and tweeter with a very specific cable designed to optimize the interaction between amp and his speaker. I was most interested in his statement that when bi-amp'ing you should use high current amplifiers on top and on bottom, but that the amp for the midrange should be the larger wattage amp, since the demands of the midrange, not the bass, require the largest swings in voltage. His M7-HPA is designed accordingly, working in Class A up to 70 watts with a tube input stage and no digital processing of any kind. The amp is priced at $52,000, as is the Model 7 flagship speaker. Other cabling in the system was very high end AudioQuest Wild series. The sound of Three Dog Night singing "Spinning Wheel" was better than I've ever heard it. Words like "transparent, dynamic and neutral" come foremost to mind, but being pressed for time now, I felt compelled to move on.

 

I barely made it out the door when I encountered A.J. Conti, designer of the Basis turntable, who shared with me that Richard Vandersteen also uses the Lyra Atlas cartridge as his reference. So we hopped back into the room for a photo. The Basis table here was near top of the line with a separate power supply and vacuum hold-down in addition to the screw-down clamp. The table also featured the new Basis Superarm 9, all for about $72,000.

 

Parachuting up to the 3rd floor to get back into the Real World, I found an Elegant Solution in the form of Totem Fire two-way stand mounted monitors ($6000) driven by an "all-in-one" Devialet, their smallest unit at $6500. Very clean and inviting sound here. I asked Nico Bruzzese about his dad's absence at recent shows and he assured me that Vince was in good health, and traveling in Europe to set up dealers and making arrangements for shows. I have to admit that I was skeptical about Devialet's viability, but they have broadened their line-up and seem to have great appeal with folks who want to enjoy their music without becoming overwhelmed by the audiophile hobby.

 

David Stanavich is the heart and soul of Waxrax who makes modular shelving for LPs. The tall unit here holds about 700 LPs and sells for $6200, with volume discounts available. Various other sizes as well as carts with castors are available in a variety of colors from this Brooklyn based company. My garage sale record collection cost considerably less than the racks to hold them, but for those with discerning taste in home décor, these were both sturdy and elegant in a contemporary/industrial way. I couldn't help but think he might have had better exposure in a booth setting, and at a lower cost.

 

Shane Tenace of Tenace Music Systems was offering a Peachtree Nova 125 SE integrated amp ($1500) combined with Opera Seconda speakers ($4000) from Italy (the smaller ones in the photo). Music streamed from a computer to an HRT HD DAC (not included in Package #2). AudioQuest Rocket 44 speaker cables and Carbon USB cable ($160). The Show Special Price was $5000, which more than makes up for the cost of admission.

 

Simplifi Audio with their DSPeaker had a familiar signal processing demonstration with both the Klan speaker in white, and the Gradient speaker in black. Using a $100 disc player, their Dual Core unit made music for a silk ear out of a sow's purse... in a $5000 system. This room was drawing intense interest and I couldn't get a question in edgewise to learn if there have been any updates since I last hear their rig.

 

Brett Bargenquast of Audioengine was quite proud of their new Bluetooth B1 ($189) with AptX Bluetooth, a step up version of Bluetooth, along with a 24-bit DAC on the output. It looked to have good build quality and sounded very nice through their Audioengine powered monitors. It can be used with other speakers, of course, and is a good way to add Bluetooth wireless technology to an existing system. I also heard their D3 USB headphone DAC feeding directly into their powered speakers from a laptop, creating an elegant minimalist system.

 

Bache Audio, a small new company from Brooklyn who markets direct to consumer, was a new name to me. I had the pleasure of meeting Greg Belman, the unassuming designer. They were playing their 001AB floorstanding speaker ($9945) driven with Aluxus Audio 33SE tube monoblocks ($9950), another name new to me. The Bache speaker featured a near full-range 8" driver with a bamboo paper cone augmented by a Fostex Limited Edition FT-96A-EX2 tweeter from Japan that is no longer available. The downward firing 10" bass driver with a wood fiber cone operated in a special double ported design. This powered version of the speaker is very efficient (95dB/W/m) for use with low powered tube amps. A 300 watt Class D amp handles the deep bass. The 001 PB at 90dB/W/m, unpowered, requires a more powerful amp, of course. With no crossover on the main driver, this system had a very transparent and immediate presentation. The wood veneers were especially attractive. The monoblocks had a digital readout of the tube bias of the 6C33C power tubes and operated in Class A. The input tube was a Russian 6922 and the chassis labeled the driver tube as an SV572. The designer of this handsome amp is a Russian gentleman, Alex Chorine, with decades of experience, I'm told. I presume the preamp and separate phono stage were also his. These were but a couple of the local gemstones that surfaced at this show and are certainly worthy of formal review.

 

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