Undercutting
Bluebird Music's Ultimate Budget System with a shift in technology was a
$3500 system from Codell Audio
that incorporated the Vandersteen
1C loudspeaker along with Fatman's
new iTube 182 integrated amplifier fed by their iPod docking station. The tube
in the center of the amplifier danced with blue (or was it green?) light in
cadence with the music, ala the original Fatman I saw here last year. Later on
I would come across even larger Fatman pieces, but the rig here clearly showed
the high value of the Vandersteen.
I've written very favorably about Gamut
Audio over the years here at Enjoy the Music.com and I was enthralled by the Gemme
Audio loudspeaker here at Montreal last year. Imagine my delight at
hearing Gamut's CD3 player and new, smaller Si 100 integrated amplifier
driving Gemme's new Katana floorstanding loudspeaker ($9300) with ceramic
drivers. Dressed in piano gloss black, this upscale model surpassed my
recollection of last year's experience of the original Tanto in musicality,
as well as physical beauty. This was easily one of the Best
Rooms at the show this year.
Hearld
International Holding Company hardly sounds
like an audio company, but they burst upon the scene Big Time last year with
large and uniquely designed loudspeakers. The H777M seen here is an upgrade of
last year's presentation with two built-in amplifiers and an electronic
crossover. It was just as convincing as the version I saw last year, once
again visually dominating a small room, but sounding quite at home. This is
the one that looks like an evolutionary derivative of B&W's famous
Nautilus model of many years ago. On the floor was an even more interesting
product, their H737P, a dual-preamp that can output the signal from vacuum
tubes, solid state, or a combination of the two. As applied to the H777M
loudspeaker, for example, you could drive the built-in power amplifier for the
midrange and tweeter with the tube output of the preamplifier, and drive the
bass drivers with the solid-state output. How cool is that, you ask? Well, it
would probably take a complete review to answer that question — far beyond
the scope of a show report. But it certainly was an interesting concept and a
visually interesting piece to look at. They are hoping to bring it out for
about $2000. Very good sound here.
In another room Hearld
displayed a variety of home theater lifestyle loudspeakers that had one of the
most stunning combinations of style and finish that I've ever seen. That the
various sets sold for between $1000 and $2000 was remarkable. Among the styles
were thin floorstanding towers, thin stand mounted monitors and an unusual
style that looked like 4" square extruded tubing in primary colors designed
to mount at an acute angle on a wall. Definitely a contemporary lifestyle!
This loudspeaker is actually gloss back and white, though the photo above
gives an artistic coloration.
Not
to be out-done, a few doors down the hall was the huge Usher
D2 loudspeaker standing close to 6' tall on castors and looking
like a contemporary D'Appolito interpretation of the vintage Altec Voice of
the Theaters I used to own. I can assure you that the Usher sounded much
better, if not quite as efficient at only 98dB/W/m. Goertz
cabling is inside. The piano gloss black finish and stained wood horn were
visually impressive, but you can also choose piano ivory if you live in Miami.
The electronics were Nuforce, but
there was also a set of tube amplifiers on the shelf below them, so you might
have experienced a different sound if you were there. The CD player was an APL
modified Esoteric model that sells for $30,000. You ask why? Well, I
think it has something to do with the 20 pair of 32-bit AKM
DACs per channel that keep re-sampling the data toward bit-perfect
reproduction as the error goes down by the square of the number of DACs you
have — so I'm told.
In a room that is a stand-out every year, Verity
Audio presented their Sarastro II in a very beautiful slate blue
birds-eye maple veneer. Finished to perfection, it was very stately. Black Ayer
monoblocks were positioned on slabs of what looked like recycled
solid maple slabs from a bowling alley. The effect was less formal than the
Sarastro, but very nice indeed. The front end was a Nagra
tape player playing master tapes. As much of a treat as it is to hear master
tapes, it is almost like cheating when it comes to identifying the Best
Rooms at the show, but this was certainly one of them. Last year
they did it with tube amplification, this year with solid-state.
As the Press & Trade Day came to a close at 6pm I
wandered down to Level 4 to partake in the cocktail hour. I couldn't resist
kicking around in the open ballroom where twenty or so mostly unattended
booths had silent presentations. To my surprise I encountered a display for Dynamat
Extreme, which I had reviewed as a window treatment in my Winter Tweakfest review, and shared my findings with the
representative there who was intrigued with my new application for their
product. Check out the Enjoy the Music.com Review Magazine to read my
impressions of Dynamat.
Another representative fired up a pair of new Fatman
products — their Control Room preamplifier with gold (real?) plated hoods
covering the small signal tubes, and their Engine Room, 200 watt monoblocks.
The Control Room includes three line inputs and mm phono stage. Fatman is
actually a product of TL Audio, a
British firm with deep roots in the recording industry specializing in hybrid
products combining solid state with tubes. The Fatman line-up is so tasty that
they have become plagued with off-shore copies. In an age of super-sized
consumers, their name and their cute etched logo is a stroke of genius. From
what I heard last year and upstairs at this year's show, their reputation
should grow rapidly.
Another British hybrid amplifier, the Roth
Audio MC-4 ($600) shared the table with the Fatman. This small 13
wpc integrated is designed to work with iPods, MP3 and CD players and includes
a chunky remote control for controlling the iPod. Valves are used in the low
signal stage and a pair of MOSfets is used in the power stage, allowing for a
small footprint on your desktop. I thought this was a creative original design
with its use of Plexiglas to keep fingers and fur away from the tubes.
Wandering through the Lifestyle area of the show, I came
across a pair of B&O loudspeakers that reminded me of Blue Nuns. The use
of flash here gave them a holier than Bose appearance. In reality, the blue
was much more muted.
And a little further on I was greeted by the Village People.
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High-Performance Audio Reviews
