Report By Rick Becker
Page 4
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In the darkened room, I thought I was taking a photo of their burgundy
anodized components, when I saw the photo below, I thought my camera must have
been having problems. But in Art Shapiro's report in Positive Feedback
Online, he came up with the same color with his camera.
Man, talk about Hot! This stuff tips the scale on the Wife Acceptance
Factor, right up there with Blue Circle's Pumps and Purse! They should have had a spotlight on these Odyssey components!
For people who like their loudspeaker to be seen as well as heard, Gershman
Acoustics did a surround sound presentation with their Grand Prix RX-20
loudspeakers up front and smaller, wall-hung surrounds. This $13K system
(plus cables), fronted by a Marantz DV-8300 SACD/DVD player with a Linar10
Multi-channel integrated amplifier ($4250), and Nordost loudspeaker
cable, put me right up front with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon in
surround. Linar is the "next" company of Victor Sima, who also
founded SimAudio, and includes products for conventional stereo.
In the next room I finally heard the Gershman Opera Sauvage in a setting
and system that made it sound like the price they ask ($23K). This was
the third time I've heard it, and in a room no bigger than in the past.
Perhaps it was Victor Sima's Stereo Preamplifier 2 and two 500-watt
monoblocks helping with the magic. All I can remember is sitting in the
room, enjoying the music, and thinking to myself "At last, I can now write
something wonderful about this expensive loudspeaker!" I must have
been so enthralled, that that I neglected to shoot video or photos. Such
is life.
In a room treated to cleansed power by Richard Gray's Power
Delivery System, a collection of components from very highly regarded
companies combined in a surround system that should have been more
enthralling. Perhaps it was a case of too many big guns in a small room.
The source was an Arcam FMJ DVD player, which fed an Accuphase
DX 700 pre-processor, a Rives parametric equalizer, a pair of Halcro
stereo DM-38 power amplifiers (one driving the right front and right rear, the
other driving the left front and left rear) and at least two, if not four, Wisdom
NS-27 loudspeaker. The stereo Halcro amplifier ($18,900), rated at 180
wpc, is said to have 2200 watts available at all times, because of its design.
I was a bit surprised to see that it is no smaller than the Halcro monoblocks
that have been so highly acclaimed. The Wisdom NS-27 combines a 3”
planar tweeter with a 24" planar midrange and a 12" downward firing
woofer. At 16 x 22 x 52 tall, these are not small loudspeaker, but
are considerably smaller that the Wisdom Adrenaline series that is their sonic
target. And at $10K, they are considerably less expensive. The
sound here was good, but didn't have the magic that the big brand names
suggested might be here.
The next room did have that magic, at a substantially lower price,
and from companies that were new to me. The Penaudio
Charisma monitor at $2995/pr is designed to mate with the Chara woofer at
$2500. Wrapped in a thin veneer of plywood, the visual impression was
that the entire loudspeaker cabinet was carved out of a stack of plywood,
giving it a very modern look.
Just a thin space separated the monitor from the side-firing woofer module.
These loudspeaker are imported from Finland by Portal Audio, whose
electronics drove the system. A Portal Panache integrated amplifier
seemed to be doing the pre-amplification, feeding signal to two Portal Paladin
fully balanced 200 watt monoblocks. While the Portal components seemed
to have a rather pedestrian AV-equipment look, there was no arguing with the
music. Now, do I dare
say this was one of the best rooms at the show? A little shy on bass,
perhaps, but why not?! Every hand has to have a wildcard.
Silverline Audio is well respected for their loudspeakers and here
they presented their Bolero model, which is based on their SR17 model,
extending the two-way bookshelf monitor into a floorstanding three-way full
range design. With 92dB sensitivity and 8-ohm impedance it was tube
friendly, as evidenced by the prototype Silverline Moto (targeted at $15K),
that was driving it. Using a 300B tube for rectification, and an 805
tube to deliver 21 wpc in class A, the amplifier also features an auto biasing
circuit. A Metronome CD player was the source for this system.
Naim presented a home theater array that included their new DVD-5
DVD/CD player, and their SL2, Axess and Allae loudspeaker. The SL2
featured an isolation plate with spikes on both sides to separate the
loudspeaker from the floor. In admiring the clean lines and stateliness
of the Naim system, it dawned on me that Naim is for people who want their
system to be noticed, but not looked at; heard, but not talked about by people
at social gatherings.
Is this the official system at British Embassies?
In the Reimyo room, I found more excellence coming from their $17K
CD player and amplifier, which use original Western Electric 300B tubes, not
the re-issues. The loudspeakers, at $3900 for the monitors and $3900 for
the bass units were also very nice. In addition to all the special
footers used with this equipment, there was a Combak tuning dot near
the center of the ceiling.
Back
to the 7th Floor
At the suggestion of my friend Art Shapiro, I went into the Red Planet
Labs room. (I probably would have done so anyway, but I entered with
higher expectation than I might have otherwise). Daniel Marz is the man
behind Red Planet Labs and he makes power amplifiers. Here he was
showing his five-channel HT102 model ($4195), using only two channels to drive
his single driver full-range Rethm loudspeaker. I'm not a big
fan of single driver loudspeakers, but Rethms are about the best of the breed
that I have heard. The music being played here immediately overcame my
loudspeaker bias. Transparency, focus, delicacy and effortlessness were
immediately apparent, but I was also aware of the ease of driving Rethms. The
100 wpc were clearly overkill. Other amplifiers in his repertoire
include the STR201 225 wpc stereo unit and a more expensive five-channel
model. I don't know whether it is Art's power of suggestion or my
own intuition, but this could be a really great amplifier, and it is certainly
one that merits further investigation.
Daniel Marz, Red Planet Labs
And Back to the 6th Floor
And finally, just before breaking for dinner, I ducked into the Gingko
Audio room to see the Cloud 10 isolation platforms. On a working
display they had a direct comparison on a monitor between a sensor placed
directly on an equipment rack and a sensor placed on top of one of their
platforms supporting a component. The visual difference was dramatic,
but what was just as intriguing to me was pushing on the Cloud 10 and seeing
it jiggle, much like the components on my Symposium Rollerblocks. At
Montreal, in controlled access, they did direct comparison of playback with
and without the Cloud 10, but unfortunately, I couldn't afford the time in
line. Hopefully, I will someday obtain a sample for comparison.
Also, of note, was a Cloud 10 platform custom made for a Wilson Benesch Circle
turntable. I was told about Michael Fremer's opportunity to directly
compare playback with and without the platform earlier in the show, but I'll
let him tell his own story. Keep an eye out for it in the Analog Corner
in Stereophile.
Saturday Night
Meeting up with Loren Frumker from Cleveland, a mutual friend of Art's,
we hit the streets to find a restaurant. Outside the Hilton the entire
Avenue of the Americas had been taken over by rows of booths filled with small
vendors of various cultural artifacts and of course, food. At this hour,
they were taking down their tents, however, and we pressed on for a real
restaurant.
One thing we learned was that New York City has legalized mugging,
and people walk right up to you on the street and invite you to sit in funny
purple chairs while they beat on you and take your wallet. We saw this
happen several times.
NYC Muggers
We made our way down to 42nd Street only to find BB King's
new club was closed for a private event. Subsequently, we wandered over
to Birdland for a very delicious, if not terribly filling dinner.
The Brooklyn Lager I had with dinner was actually brewed in Utica, NY, but it
tasted great after a hard day in the Hilton.
While wandering around after dinner sirens started to blare and fire trucks
shot out of the firehouse directly across the street from us. To our
surprise and amazement, they turned left, into the oncoming traffic on this
one-way avenue. Equally amazing, the taxicabs just kept coming, forcing
the fire trucks to dodge them. Man, talk about an amusement park!
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High-Performance Audio Reviews
