Starting out my morning in the
Tri Audio Marketing room as they had Clayton Audio M300 monoblocks and the
system is 100 percent wired with DH Labs cables. Very refreshing as the sound
was very relaxing yet defined. The speakers are the Black Swan ($36,000) and Wadia for digital front
end plus DH Labs' Air Matrix balanced interconnects and the Power Plus AC
cords round out this system. Clayton Audio M300 balanced monoblocks ($11,500/pr) are pure Class A all the way to
300 watts. There are 8 pairs of custom Motorola bi-polars in each amplifier. They also have low and high bias switch, as high bias produces 100% Class A whereas low bias is pure Class A, yet not as richly into
it. Very elegant visually and audibly. A nice way to begin my day with casual music, instead of those beat you over the head home theater demos. Hey, i was up late last night with the
guys...
Gershman Acoustics had their new Sonogram ($3,695/pr) floorstanding loudspeakers that have an inner cabinet that is pyramid-shaped to break up distortion causing standing waves. Another advantage is that this also produces a more rigid cabinet. Top of the line double Vifa chamber tweeter, the Morel dome mirage, and custom American made 8-inch fiberglass cone woofer. Sensitivity is
89dB/W/m with a frequency response from 28Hz to 20kHz. A wide variety of real wood finishes and solid colors are available. Gershman Acoustics Cameleon loudspeaker review is located here.
Shanling's all-singing all-dancing MC-30 ($995) plays CD, has iPod dock, FM tuner is a preamplifier, and 3-watt stereo amplifier. Only thing missing is a headphone jack (hint hint
Shanling). Shanling CD-T300 review is here
while a review of the Shanling CD T-100 CD player is here.
Salgar Speakers had their very interesting looking Symphony S210 ($7999/pr) that a 1-inch silk soft dome tweeter and 10-inch long-throw NRSC coated paper cone. An interesting cabinet design that yields a frequency response from 50Hz to 20kHz.
Chad Kassem of Acoustic Sound
Silicone Arts from Japan had their CF-080 LS line stage ($18,000) that keeps the signal length extremely short, 4 inches per channel to be precise. The analog input selector and volume control use microprocessor to ensure the signal's clarity yet allow for remote control. The chassis is produced using very high precision. Amplification was the company's ZL-120 ($24,000/pr) is a simply, elegant design that uses only two pair of MOSFET to keep the signal pure by using few parts to produce 120 watts each (zero global feedback).
Norihisa Sayanagi of Silicone Arts
Also in the Silicone Arts room had the Escalante Design The Fremont. Overall this room had a nicely dynamic and very clear sound. They were playing a MoFi
version of Sonny Rollins Way Out West and had a sound of natural body and control.
VAC's new Alpha ($12,500 or so) 100-watt stereo amplifier is a fully integrated tube amplifier with the preamplifier board is completely on the rear of the unit that contains both the jacks and the tubes. That is hard-shielded, then a mesh shield to keep the frontal power supply from interfering from the rear analog staged. MM phono stage standard, MC is options. Balanced inputs are also optional and all the usual goodies apply. The unit weighs 96 lbs, with 45 of them being
transformers! Enjoy the Music.com has a review of the VAC Avatar integrated
amplifier here.
Kevin Hayes of VAC Audio. Hey Kevin, will this be the year you
finally... you know. Last call Kevin.
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High-Performance Audio Reviews
