Thursday
Here in the Tenor Audio room they had their Classic 75WP ($18,900) and 75WI
amplifiers. They were both being used to bi-amplify the impressively large Rockport Hyperions ($86,500). The Hyperions use
the Audio Technology 13" woofer and 6" midrange mated with the Esoteric tweeter. Jena Labs Pathfinder interconnect and loudspeaker
cable kept the system "well-connected". An Audio Aero Capitol 24/192 CD player
as source ($6,900) was directly driving the amplifiers (read: no pre-amplifier necessary).
Also of note were the four excellent Machina Dynamica Promethean Bases ($500 each) for the Tenor
amplifiers and one Nimbus ($900) for the Audio Aero player.
In the Convergence Audio Technology room was the Wilson Grand Slam loudspeakers ($90,000), CAT JL 2 stereo amplifier ($12,000) and VYGER Indian Signature
($24,000, seen below) as reviewed within our very own Review
Magazine.
Kharma's beautifully finished Exquisite Extended Reference 1A loudspeaker
($90,000) was looking might extraordinary in their demo room.
Walker Proscenium Gold Signature turntable is considered by
many to be among the world's best analog reply devices.
Lamm Industries new LP2 phono stage ($6,290, or $6,690 in deluxe version)
employs vacuum tubes for signal gain while a custom designed dampening panel
reduces the negative effects of vibrations. The Deluxe version comes with a
power supply that can store more energy than the standard version.
Kharma Ceramuin Reference Monitor CRM 3.2 ($19,000) two-way loudspeaker has
a single 1" titanium done tweeter mated with a ceramic 7" midrange/bass driver. Pure silver coils and silver/gold internal
wiring insure fast, clean signal transfer from the loudspeaker binding posts
the the drivers.
Intuitive Design's Denali loudspeaker ($35,000 per pair) is
wrapped in Italian marble mounted on a Corian base for a very inert total
package. Drivers include two Scanspeak 8" woofers, Cabasse 6" midrange and Seas 1" silk soft-dome tweeter. Each cabinet of this three
cabinet design boast 28 ball bearings for vertical free floating. Each
complete loudspeaker weighs in at a hefty 500 lbs. Amplifiers driving the loudspeakers
were the Essence Emerald 300 watt monoblocks ($15,000).
Essence's Jasper pre-amplifier ($15,000) also uses bearings for free
floating to reduce vibrations from interfering with the high-performance
circuitry. This is a tubed design with two matched 12AX7s.
Got Music? Aurios offers various vibration control devices.
Do you have a dream? Consider it no longer a
"Pipedream" as these tall floorstanding loudspeakers also include
separate subwoofer for full frequency music reproduction.
Click here to see
a complete listing of
specialty high-end audio show exhibitors.
Click here to see last
year's show coverage.
