As Tom and
I left the Hilton Bonaventure to scare up breakfast before the show on
Saturday we encountered the official Salon Son Image Fiat. It was the right
color, but closer inspection found it to be bereft of Unison tube amps and
Sonus Faber in-car speakers. Pity.
Ordering breakfast by the number, we soon learned that
corporate branding has risen to a new level. Our McBreakfast buns were
literally branded with the iconic arches.
Tom and I went separate ways and I started with the small
guest rooms on the lower level beginning with the Coup
de Foudre room where I once again found John
DeVore. But unlike last year, he had added digital playback to the
rig. This was the premiere of his new DeVore
Gibbon 88 speakers ($5000) which were introduced in prototype form
earlier this year at CES. This gorgeous production pair was made from solid
bamboo with a mahogany finish and replaces the Super 8 model in his lineup.
The analog music was coming from a Brinkman
Bardo turntable to a Leben phono
stage. Alternatively, music sourced from his computer fed an Acoustic
Plan DAC ($4700) from Germany through its USB input. The matching
transport was also $4700. Amplification was a Line
Magnetic LM-211IA tube integrated amp. While the first selection I
heard was too complex to get a grip on the quality of the rig, a subsequent
piece revealed a detailed, warm and inviting sound that would be very easy to
live with. As a disclaimer, I am a tube guy at heart, but I'll bet a lot of
other people loved this room, too.
As I was saying at breakfast, branding is everything…or so
it may become in the highly fragmented High End audio industry. The Vmax
room suggested the Amphion
speakers were both natural and dynamic, with a splash of orange. And so they
seemed to sound. Particularly the dynamic element, driven by solid state gear
by Hegel from Norway, including
their HD11 (32-bit/192kHz DAC with USB and remote for $1195), their CDP2A
(24-bit/192kHz CD player with balance outputs for $2700 used as a transport),
their P30 preamp with balanced inputs and outputs for $7600 and their H30 1000
watt monoblocks for $15,000(each?). The sound was crisp, clear and
punchy. This rig could rock! The Argon 7L model from Amphion runs about $6000
to $7000 depending on finish. And speaking of finishes…this one supports my
theory that White is the new Black. Also on the Hegel product list (but not
heard) was their HD2 24/192 USB DAC for only $350 that might be of interest to
a lot of folks.
Cabasse, on
the other hand, hedged their bet offering their new CineOle in both black and
white. The 3-piece ensemble features two balls and a cubic subwoofer that
houses both a DAC and amplification for the speakers. For $1800 I can't
think of a better rig for video playback in a contemporary setting. It's
simple. It's designed right. And it sounds a whole lot more expensive. For
those with deeper pockets and larger rooms, Cabasse also showed their
floorstanding Pacific 3 SA in an elegant, sculptured piano black for $22,000.
The "eyeball" is a spatially coherent mid-tweeter sphere that is more
often exposed on other Cabasse loudspeakers. It runs from175 Hz to 20 kHz,
with a crossover at 1830 Hz. A built-in 450w amplifier drives the twin
honeycomb dome woofers that take the music down to 38 Hz and lower. Like the
CineOle, it is available in glossy black and glossy pearl. Both speakers
further Cabasse's reputation of excellence for sound and contemporary
design.
Lafleur Audio
was back again with the familiar X-2 two-way monitor ($15,000) that has
undergone some crossover work to strengthen the bass. In fact, I was stopped
in the hall by a couple of dudes who raved to me about how deep the bass was
from this speaker. I asked Emmanuel Lafleur
about this and he confirmed that he has modified the crossover. While it is
deeper and stronger than I remembered, I felt it still needed work to tighten
up the deep bass. Every year, though, it keeps getting better. I heard it with
an Oracle turntable and
predominately YBA amplification.
Waterfall
showed their minimalist Serio speaker that is available with a several colored
grilles and can be used as a desktop speaker without the stand. Also shown was
their Victoria "Evo" glass floorstanders. Both sounded very nice and had a
visual appeal for the customer looking for something a little different.
I've actually overcome my phobia for glass speakers now that I've seen
these several times. The tidy internal wiring becomes part of the design,
suggesting a Frank Lloyd Wright stained glass window. Unseen is a downward
firing passive woofer in the base. The glass towers were driven very nicely by
Cary tube gear and the little sound squares were configured with a minimalist
Bluetooth rig.
The Solen Electronique
room is always filled with DIYers and had a working minimalist rig shown here
with one of their kit speakers featuring a ribbon tweeter. Just plug your iPod
into the little black box and rock on! On one of several tables filled with
raw drivers, this wood cone full-range driver caught my attention.
(FR222B8-19B, $193 each.)
Rethm
presented a rig that was largely comprised of their own gear. The Maarga
loudspeaker ($8750) is a full-range single driver design like everything
I've ever seen from them. The 6" driver is surrounded by an aluminum ring
with lots of holes drilled into it to control dispersion. Their Gaanam SET
integrated amplifier ($7750) puts out 16 wpc from a pair of Russian 6C33C
tubes. While they looked something like monoblocks on the Rethm Taalam racks,
the unit on the left is the power supply. They were also using power and audio
cables of their own design. I commented on the architectural nature of the
speakers, stands and amplifier to Jacob
George who was present along with his son who is also in the
business, and Jacob shared that he is indeed an architect. With their high
efficiency, the Maargas delivered a delicate, yet dynamic sound that conveyed
a wonderful sense of space when playing classical music. The cohesiveness
offered by full-range drivers is something everyone in this hobby should
experience.
In the Bitperfect Audio
room the place was jammed with visitors. Classé
amplification was driving Wilson Sophia
speakers but the spotlight was on the Light
Harmonic DaVinci USB DAC from Sacramento, California, a product
that has been in development for two years and was introduced at CES. The
chassis incorporates a light band that kind of wraps around the unit. The top
of the unit swivels — why, I don't know. The DAC is non-upsampling,
non-over-sampling and has no delta/sigma conversions or digital filtrations
making it bit perfect up to 32 bit/384kHz. Gavin
Fish told me that by the New York show (merely weeks away) it will
be full dad. They see their principle competition as being dCs, MSB and
Playback Design. I was told that the DaVinci goes for $20,000, but a little
homework showed much lower prices quoted at earlier shows. I heard from a
couple of people that thought the sound in this room was not all that great,
but if it was anywhere near as crowded and noisy as when I was there, it was
not a reasonable situation for passing judgment. Aside from the reputed
excellence of this DAC, the other take away was that the Wilson Sophia was not
as visually dominant or imposing as I thought it might be in this modest size
room.
In another of the Coup de
Foudre rooms Jeff Joseph
hosted a presentation of his stand mounted Pulsar monitors. A MacBook Pro
computer was feeding a Wavelength
DAC hooked into a Brinkmann 70
wpc integrated amplifier while a Brinkmann Bardo turntable idled at the top of
the rack. Joseph speakers never fail to entice me with their transparency,
focus and warm, inviting demeanor. At this level of excellence, there is
little or no need to come out with new models every year.
Next Page ---->
High-Performance Audio Reviews
