Sunday
T.H.E. Show Newport Beach (The Home Entertainment Show) 2013

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  Wyred 4 sound's new W4S mPRE preamplifier ($1099) has three inputs including optical TosLink, S/PDIF coaxial and USB, which all handle up to 24-bit/192kHz via the ESS Sabre DAC. The DAC uses Hyperstream and Jitter Elimination Architecture whilst the asynchronous XMOS design handles USB 2.0. For analog, there is both balanced and unbalanced output/input and two sets of unbalanced input.

 

Antelope Audio was playing their big DAC, though of course we her at Enjoy the Music.com are featuring the company's new Zodiac Platinum DAC capable of DSD256 and 768kHz/64-bit oversampling rate here at T.H.E. Show Newport Beach 2013 event. And yes they were playing, for the first time, their Rubicon Atomic AD/DA preamplifier. The sound was most impressive indeed. Am being a bit stingier today, yet yes indeed the Antelope Audio Rubicon Atomic AD/DA gets my award for being Cali Cool.

 

Here at T.H.E. Show Newport beach 2013 they had a great boutique car show too.

 

Technics turntable with sweet looking base and love the linear tracking tonearm too!

 

A wonderful eyeful of glow from Napa Acoustics. For the money... outstanding!

 

Fritz speaker room with their Carbon 8 small monitors $1850 and Atma-Sphere OTL amps.

 

Von Gaylord had all their goodies and yes it sounded very, very good. Smooth, wonderful imaging, smooth tonality.... and being $7000 for the entire system is a big plus too!

 

 

 

Glow Audio's Amp Two ($1508) is a push-pull integrated tube amp with impressive quality for the price. You get multiple analog inputs, solid speaker binding posts and 15 wpc. Available colors are white or black.

 

Pass Labs amplification could be heard in many top-end rooms here at THE Show Newport Beach 2013. Speakers here are the Linn Audio model Athenaeum ($60,000).

 

DC Gold Audio produces drivers for the Surreal Sound Audio model Fifth Row floorstanders ($24,000 and stand adds $2500). They use a very interesting setup with six 10” woofers. Most interesting indeed.

 

Perfect 8 The Point MKII Evolutions ($115,000).

 

Alas, forgot to take a snap yet Spendor is here with the United States launching of a new line called D Line, with their first efforts being the D7 ($6500). This 2.5-way floorstander has a linear flow reflex with dynamic damping system in the cabinet. Drivers are the Spendor 22mm LPZ with fluid cooling tweeter, Spendor 180mm ep77 cone midrange and Spendor 180mm Kevlar composite cone woofer. Theur United States distributor Bluebird Music did a great job at the show and the sound was definitely one to enjoy. Or as I say, enjoy the music.

 

Here is great guy Todd Garfinkle of M*A Recordings showing off his vinyl, yes vinyl record of Sera' una Noche.

 

Nola Micro Grand Reverence Gold large monitors ($22,200 with stands). that has new woofers with massive Alnico ring magnets and gold phase plugs. There is also a new ribbon tweeter that can reach pwards of 100 kHz. Overall frequency response if from 34 Hz to 100 kHz and when it comes to cabinet finishes, Nola knocks it out of the Park. Of course you can choose from True Piano Rosewood with True Piano Black bases or upgrade it to Piano Black as seen here, with other finishes available by special order.

 

Audio Note brought their DAC 3.1x / II Balanced $10,000 non-oversampling unit with all the great goodies like Black Gate caps, silver wire, etc. Audio Note is a wonderfully quirky company that follows the vision of Peter Qvortrup, a man who truly does follow his own path and frankly, gets it right.

 

The Synergistic Research and VAC system here at T.H.E. Show Newport Beach 2013 includes the Magico Q7 Loudspeakers ($185,000) being driven by VAC front end. From VAC we have their 450 monoblocks, Reference Pre-Amp and Reference Phono preamplifier ($116,000/Pair, $46,000 and $50,000 respectively). Cables were of course by Synergistic Research and was their 'The Music Cable' ($3695). Other Synergistic Research products here include the Enigma tube power supply ($10,000) and new Galileo LE Interconnects, speaker cables and AC cord ($7500/pair, $15,000/pr and $5600 for five foot length).

 

 Synergistic Research Galileo LE speaker cable and interconnect ($15,000 and $7500).

 

The Cable Company had a great variety of products here at T.H.E. Show Newport Beach 2013 that included their Ultasonic AudioDesk Systeme versus the Hannl Mera ($3995 and $5495). It was quite interesting and they loved how the Ultrasonic really cleaned vinyl thoroughly. One must clean their vinyl and am impressed with the unit; and thus it earns my nod for being Cali Cool.

 

 

Hmm... well, upon deep questioning my sleuthing paid off as the above guy is not Mat of VPI, but Mat's clone! Mat, you might want to, you know, keep tabs on the mischief your clone is up to. Mat's clone is definitely Cali Cool tho!

 

Well, that wraps up Sunday's coverage... but there's much more to come! Yes, so much more that it will probably take another two more updates to get it all online! So check back in a few days as there will be much more coverage of T.H.E. Show Newport Beach 2013! As always, in the end what really matters is that you...

Enjoy the Music (2Pac keeping it real in California... the wild wild West. This one goes out to my good friend West coast DJ Michael 'The Maniac' Mercer. Ya'll better recognize... California),

Steven R. Rochlin