LATEST ADDITIONS

Not Too Many Notes In This Case
Fred Manteghian  |  May 12, 2007  |  First Published: May 13, 2007

The DCS Scarlatti CD player and Brinkman Balance turntable, arm and cartridge were a formidable front end in one of the Singer rooms. VTL's TL-6.5 tube preamp and TP-6.5 phonostage gently handed off the signal to a VTL Reference S-400 stereo tube amp. The big surprise for me was the speaker system at the end of this audio reproduction chain. Escalante Design's Fremont speaker had an unusual two toned finish that made me think palomino pony. The speaker was very boxy, very unconventional by modern aesthetics, but boy, this speaker was blessed with a beautiful tonal range with powerful but controlled bass. Big well designed tubes amps like the VTLs will do that.

Continue Reading »
Three New Moons This Weekend
Darryl Wilkinson  |  May 12, 2007
Simaudio chose HE2007 to unveil three of its newest components. In this not-so-great photo, the MOON CD-1 CD Player is shown under the new MOON i-1 Integrated Amplifier (50 watts x 2 into 8 ohms or 100 watts x 2 into 4 ohms). Each piece of gear will sell for $1,349 and will be available in the Fall of 2007. Also in the booth was the MOON LP3 Phono Preamplifier, a smaller version of the MOON LP5.3, which sells for $499.
Continue Reading »
TAD's Entertainment
Darryl Wilkinson  |  May 12, 2007
The TAD room was definitely one of the three busiest rooms that I've seen so far during HE2007. Inside the room, TAD's director of engineering, Andrew Jones, energetically explained the inner workings of the brand new TAD R-1 speakers with concentric beryllium dome tweeters and midranges. Make sure your Visa card has around a $26,000 limit, though, before you start moving the furniture around in your room to make space for a pair.
Continue Reading »
This Must Be What Hell Is Like
Fred Manteghian  |  May 12, 2007

The distributor for a new (to the USA) Swedish speaker resorted to the dirtiest of tricks to get us into their room – free Swedish food. I didn't know Edamame and asparagus were Swedish, but I guess the meatballs were all gone. I grabbed a few veggies and sat down to listen. The $1,850 GURU QM10 loudspeakers from Sjfn HiFi were pumping out a lot of bass heavy music without the assist of a subwoofer. Unfortunately, the first cut was something that sounded like Yello meets the Greater Wagnerian Society of Skinheads.

Continue Reading »
Looks Good Enough To Eat!
Fred Manteghian  |  May 12, 2007

I spent some time in the Lipinski / JVC room. Lukas Lipinski showed us a more stylized version of the L-707 speakers on custom stands that include stereo amps (either bridged and biwired or not-bridged and biamped – we're still a little confused). Tom Norton goes into more detail in his coverage below, so I won't repeat it here. Suffice to say, the sound from these speakers was, once again, very good, if a bit too loud.

Continue Reading »
The MBLs Are Coming
Shane Buettner  |  May 12, 2007

Admittedly, this show is still very much Stereophile oriented, meaning more two-channel and less TVs and surround sound. So, what does a UAV reporter do? He walks around and listens to stereos like this one, loaded with ultra expensive and strangely pretty MBL gear. And yes, this gear has a sound that's as unique as its looks, with massive scale and dynamic swing.

Continue Reading »
Slim Devices Transporter
Shane Buettner  |  May 12, 2007

I guess when you've been lauded in the pages of Stereophile you're not intimidated rolling into the HE Show with a network digital media server. You know, the kind of thing that plays the "M" word.

Continue Reading »
ZVOX And Mr. Incredible
Shane Buettner  |  May 12, 2007

Mr. Incredible is the on onscreen- that's ZVOX's Tom Hannaher standing next to a flat panel display and the new ZVOX 425.

Continue Reading »
Usher Gets a Bright Idea
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 12, 2007
I asked the folks at Usher if their Be-718 monitor, sold for $2500/pair, would be available in odd-numbered surround configurations like five or seven. "What a great idea!" they enthused archly. Much hard work went into tuning the beryllium-oxide tweeter from which the speaker gets its name. It will ship soon with complementary center and sub. And at 87-88dB sensitivity, the system should run well with a good receiver.
Continue Reading »
Proclaim Takes a Stand
Mark Fleischmann  |  May 12, 2007
Sometimes the secret to a great speaker is in the stand. The folks at CT-based Proclaim Audioworks say their spherical speakers (not shown) boast their best time-domain response when you arrange them on this versatile stand so that the output of each driver hits "the tip of your nose" at the same time. Pricing is $25,999 for, uh, a speaker or two or five.
Continue Reading »

Pages

X