Triode Wire Labs, Volti Audio, And BorderPatrol Audio At FIAE 2024
Sensational system synergy wins again!
Florida International Audio Expo 2024 Show Report By Steven R. Rochlin

  Year after year, show after show, this terrific trio comes together at high-performance audio events, and the Florida International Audio Expo 2024 is no exception. As usual, after taking photos I ask for a gear list. If there's one thing we can say, it is that they are very thorough at listing every bit of kit they had here at the Tampa show. Their Obsession premium audiophile power cords feature Furutech's FI-50 NCF connectors, used on the PI Audio Group UberBUSS power conditioner as well as the BorderPatrol S20 EXD Amplifier power supplies ($1499).

Their Digital American II digital power cords are used on the BorderPatrol DAC, Innuos ZENith Music Server, and Innuos Phoenix Reclocker (starting at $549). There are also their American Speaker Cables, which are terminated with premium Cardas CAB bananas (starting at $699 per set). Other cabling bits include the Spirit II RCA interconnects utilizing Ohno Continuous Cast 7N Copper (starting at $399 per pair), Passion USB cable (starting at $329), and Freedom Ethernet cable (starting at $249). All Triode Wire Labs products are proudly and meticulously hand-crafted within the USA.

During the FIAE 2024, it brought joy to see the new Volti Audio Lucera three-way hybrid horn / bass reflex speaker. It uses a highly efficient 15" woofer, plus a 2" outlet midrange compression driver mated to a 2" throat midrange horn. For the highs this loudspeaker uses a 1" tweeter compression driver mated to a 1" throat tweeter horn. Crossovers are completely hand-built on special wooden boards with 12 gauge air-coil inductors, Litz-wound inductors, Jantzen capacitors, and Lynk resistors. So as you can see, this is a serious piece of loudspeaker engineering.

The Lucera, like all Volti speakers, has adjustable crossovers for balancing the system. The cabinets are built to the usual Volti standards, with 1" thick Baltic Birch plywood, sturdy internal bracing of the same, high-quality internal damping materials and polyurethane adhesives. Cabinet size is 14.25" x 18.175" x 40" and are available in many fine wood veneers with a beautiful satin lacquer finish. Shown during the Florida International Audio Expo 2024 is their dark Rosewood veneer with light beige cloth ($11,750 per pair). Specs are 34Hz to 18kHz with a sensitivity of a very high 99dB/W/m @ 8 Ohm (nominal).

BorderPatrol's S20EXD stereo power amplifier is a dual mono 16-watt/channel unit that utilizes parallel 300B single-ended triode tubes. Featuring an all-triode vacuum tube circuit, inter-stage driver transformers, point-to-point hard wiring, no negative feedback, copper and wood chassis, plus twin external tube rectified, choke input filter PSUs.... Wow, wow, and yes again wow!!! According to BorderPatrol, both the amp and PSU have undergone extensive cryogenic treatments. And yes, seen here with a quad of Western Electric 300B tubes (price as pictured $25,990). BorderPatrol S20EXD starts at $22,500 excluding 300B tubes, with optional volume control adding $500, plus you opt for Western Electric 300B tubes at $1495 per pair.

BorderPatrol DAC SE-i digital to analog converter is a non-oversampling, no digital filtering, resistor ladder (R-2R) DAC with a sophisticated tube/solid-state hybrid choke input filter power supply and copper casework. Plays files up to 24-bit/96kHz and pricing is as follows: SE-i USB $1650, E-i SPDIF (coax) $1650, SE-i SPDIF x 2 $1750, and SE-i USB + SPDIF (coax) $2125.

Innuos Music ZENith Mk3 Music Server is a high-performance music server featuring a Triple Linear PSU with Mundorf capacitors and ultra-low noise regulators, plus 8GB of RAM, custom-treated SSD, Quad-core Intel CPU, and dual Ethernet ports for LAN and streamer. Can be used as a Roon Core and is available in either Black or Silver case. Hard drive size: 1TB $6,299, 2TB $6,699, 4TB $7,499, and 8TB $9,099. Lastly, the Phoenix USB re-clocker is a high-performance USB re-clocker with Linear PSU with Mundorf capacitors and ultra-low noise regulators. $4349.

With all those specs, descriptions, and pricing out of the way, let's get to what truly matters, the music! Super-duper fast transients were only matched by the outstanding dynamic ease. While I wish the demo room was a bit bigger, you could easily hear them working their hornspeaker magic. While it sounded very, very dynamic and full, if I were a betting man, a bigger room and a bit more distance would achieve the best from this very impressive stereo sound system.

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