The Home Entertainment Show 2004
Consumer Electronics Show 2004

     

  Page 4

 

Ole Christensen of GamuT was exhibiting his highly regarded CD-1S CD player and electronics, using loudspeakers from Tony Minasian of Tonian Laboratories.  The sound was quite seductive.  If you are in the market for a CD player, you owe it to yourself to give the GamuT a listen.  It was getting quite good buzz around the show.

 

The MM de Capo i loudspeaker from Reference 3A was sounding superb with the diminutive Audio Zone AMP-1 from Canada.  This minimalist amplifier is not unlike another product from 47 Laboratory.  This combination looks to be a real winner for the music lover with minimal space; I’ve never heard the Reference 3A sound like anything other than music.

 

EveAnna Manley of Manley Laboratories, with Israel Blume of Coincident Speaker Technology, set up a room that sounded great as always.  An impressive array of Manley gear was powering a pair of the new Coincident Grand Victory loudspeakers.  Coincident has always been one of my favorite high-efficiency speakers.  This model has an efficiency of 100 dB, using a very sensitive ribbon tweeter.  The only thing missing from this room was the lava lamp.  I propose that the Sapphire Group take up a collection to buy EveAnna a new one ... things just aren’t the same without it.

 

The new Audio Physic flagship Kronos loudspeaker was being shown in the Immedia room with the new Audio Physic 250-watt monoblocks.  The front end included an RPM turntable with a Lyra Titan cartridge, and Burmester electronics.  I only saw Stig Bjorge and Jonathan Carr of Scan Tech, the company that designs and manufactures the Lyra cartridges, briefly this year.  Next year, let’s get together and talk cartridges, guys.

 

RBH, manufacturer of the Status Acoustics loudspeaker that I have given a best sound in show award to in the past, returned to the high-end show this year.  They were featuring the RBH T1 loudspeaker, which captivated Stan and me in much the same way that the pricier Status Acoustics did previously.  This is a full-range loudspeaker that really fleshes out the lower registers, and just sounds right throughout the rest of the range.  This company deserves wider recognition within the high-end community.  Stan and I were very sorry to have missed Shane Rich and Roger B. Hassing this year.  We hope to rectify that situation next year, gentlemen.

 

Quite impressive this year were the Pipedreams.  We heard the 7-foot tower hemisphere system, with 18 midrange drivers, 36 tweeters, and two 18-inch woofers in a push-pull configuration ... per side.  They were being powered by Rowland amplifiers, kindly on loan from Jeff Rowland at the last minute.  The front end was by Burmester.  This system gave an uncanny sense of a choir hanging right in front of you in space, and had real power in the organ (on my fave Cantate Domino CD from Proprius).  The upper midrange glare that has often bothered me with this system in past years was far reduced, and I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation.

 

Other Items of Interest

Les Edelberg of Audio Power Industries was seen about the show.  The man who has taken the “Best Tie” award many years running had the audacity to show up without one this year.

 

The Art Audio amplifiers were looking kinda blue this year and sounding cool.

 

Audes LLC was exhibiting loudspeakers that have received good reviews, but which seemed to be suffering from less than ideal show conditions.  This company is based in Estonia, and has been manufacturing electronics for Eastern Europe since the 1950s.

 

Jim Bongiorno of Great American Sound and Sumo fame was decked out in all his sartorial splendor this year.  (I missed photographing the lime-green suit he was sporting on the forst day of the show.)  Jim was showcasing his Ampzilla 2000.

 

Brian Berdan, Stan Ricker and Brooks Berdan were caught coming out of T.H.E. SHOW.  If you’re ever in need of a really excellent high-end audio dealer, especially one who can set up your multi-kilobuck turntable like it was meant to be, vists Brooks in Monrovia, California.

 

Kevin Blair of Buggtussel, a self-described “downsized UpJohn pharmacologist,” was exhibiting his loudspeakers and a prototype of his new amplifier.  The EBB-150 is a 150 W solid state dual mono stereo amplifier that looks promising.

 

Stan Ricker was intrigued with a loudspeaker driver from the Canadian Loudspeaker Company.

DEQX introduced a New Digital Correction technique.  Unlike TacT, the folks at DEQX perform anechoic phase and amplitude measurements of the loudspeaker.  Then they do the room measurements, and their PDC-2.6 Digital Calibration Processor does digital inverse filtering to provide matched phase response and time alignment.  I was able to walk around the room and hear good reproduction from a wide range of positions.

 

Elac Electroacustic Gmbh from Germany was showing their new FS 608-4PI loudspeaker, with an omnidirectional ribbon tweeter.  (The 4PI refers to the omnidirectional characteristic, since there are 4p steradians in a sphere.  Never mind.)  I think this speaker shows a lot of promise, but was compromised under show conditions.

Jack Elliano of Electra-Print is known for his custom transformers, components, and complete amplifiers.  Jack was showing his HD60 60-watt Class A “Booster Amplifier,” using a single 211 tube.  It is meant to boost the output of a low-powered amplifier, and unlike a loudspeaker, it reportedly provides a constant load to that amplifier, which should result in increased linearity.  The concept comes from the remote amplifiers that were used in theaters at one time.

 

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