Here at the RMAF 2011 was the
Music Culture room was their MC811 monoblock amplifiers and the MC331 floorstanders
($7999 and $9995 respectively). Having a listen, this system sounded very 'fast' with a nice fullness. Keep in mind that attendees were enjoying the first showing of the production version of these speakers. The MC811 monoblock amplifiers will be shipping at the end of November. So all new goodies here at RMAF 2011.
Now how could I pass up these beauties! In the Gamut Audio room are the Triangle Art Reference and Signature model turntables ($14,000 and $10,000 respectively). Both units employ mass loaded design using aircraft aluminum T6 and the platter is on a single-point bearing. For ultimate speed accuracy, a digital microprocessor speed control ensures excellence in rotational stabilization. Truly a solid pair of turntables with a jaw-dropping visual styling.
As I journey through the RMAF 2011 hallways I came upon this really interesting speaker that fills out the latest Lowther driver technology. Featuring field coil technology, this is an open baffle design uses a ribbon tweeter for augmenting the uppermost frequencies whilst a powered 12" subwoofer produces the lowermost sounds. Information can be found at
Lowther-America.com because they have no model name, no price, no specs, etc.
Emerald Physics' CS3 speaker ($2995) uses this cool 12" point source driver that produced good dispersion, a flat frequency response and high sensitive of
95dB/W/m. It is dipole below 900 Hz and monopole above 900 Hz with a
controlled directivity design. Impedance is 8 Ohms and the 1" tweeter is
centrally located inside the 12" coaxial professional driver. Emerald Physics uses a boxless design approach called open-baffle dipole in order to achieve improvements over conventional loudspeakers. A very interesting speaker indeed!
Twin Audio Video brought to RMAF 2011 their new TRX-M845SE ($20,000) handles the 845 and 211
triode output tube. Super wide frequency response from 10 Hz to 50 kHz. Hopefully a review sample will be on its way to
Enjoy the Music.com shortly.
Here is the Silbatone room Joe Roberts was talking about in his video
(as
seen here).
Wavelength Audio had their Proton battery powered asyc USB DAC ($900). It has both headphone output and standard RCA stereo output. Next to it is the WaveLink HS 24/192 USB to S/PDIF ($900). As perhaps the hottest new USB DAC, the proton handles 24-bit/96kHz and easily work for desktop or portable audio use due to an internal Lithium Ion battery. When the Proton is in use, system wide volume control is directly linked to the
Proton. It is important to note that volume adjustment is done in the analog domain (not the digital domain) so the digital content is not
corrupted. So what's next for Wavelength Audio you ask? How about a tube headphone amplifier using the 6111 tube. The Electron
Headphone ($2500) amplifier has a 24-bit/192kHz ESS powered DAC with a TDK volume control.
Prima Luna was here at the RMAF 2011 with the new Dialogue 3 preamplifier ($2699), which is a true dual mono design that is tube rectified and is point to point wired by hand. This 53 lbs. unit uses 5AR4 and 12AU7, has five inputs and a home theater pass-through. Of course premium parts throughout including Alps Blue Velvet potentiometer and Solen capacitors made in France.
VAC had their Sigma 160i integrated amplifier ($9,990) that produces 85 wpc using premium KT88-SC valves. It contains internally a proper high-end audio line stage and not just some passive preamplification via potentiometer (read: a proper active preamplification stage) plus of course a phonostage for vinyl junkies. There are five line inputs, one of which can be balanced (XLR), phono input and cinema. The cinema input provides a fixed level for incorporating this unit for use within a surround sound system. Very high build quality and reliability is ensured and something VAC has been known for over the years. Color choices are black or silver.
Click here for main RMAF 2011
page.
High-Performance Audio Reviews
