Looney Tunes & Merry Melodies Jude Wanniski's "Two Santa Claus" theory of Republican tax cuts and Democratic spending programs as being the political parties' Christmas gifts that stimulate the voting in their respective directions has a corollary in HiFi: The "Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies" theory of yours truly. It says that new products with advances that appeal to those who listen for sound (the Looney Tunes), and new advances that appeal to those who listen for musicality (the Merry Melodies), tend to stimulate HiFi hobbyists to vote with their wallets. The original Absolute Sound with the excellent writing of Harry Pearson was once the preeminent tome for Looney Tunes pursuing that carrot of sound, and effectively caused a great many of them to repeatedly part with large green as new "advancements" were announced. Then Listener arose from the primordial notes, a pinnacle of achievement for the Merry Melodies. The witty and funny writing of Art Dudley got the fun back in HiFi, and got the Melodies back in touch with the music on the discs and the rhythm in their souls, while effectively causing them to part with large green as dealers got in touch with their wallets. |
|||||||||||||||||
Avantgardes can be fussy beasts to get sounding great, but Jim Smith had his Super Duos singing a siren song in the Avantgarde USA room in what was the best-ever performance I've heard from Avantgardes under show conditions, and very nearly the best sound at the shows. Avantgarde goes together with Balanced Audio Technology electronics like peanut butter goes with jelly, resulting in an expansive, warm, detailed, dynamic and musical sound. One of the strengths of this system was its ability to make even average recordings sound spectacular, an important consideration for Merry Melodies, and a hat trick only a few systems could pull off this year. |
|||||||||||||||||
The Super Duos add two extra woofer modules for a total of six dual-10" actively amplified bass arrays. This doesn't just give more bass dynamics and speed as your math of 6dB of gain from paralleling and the resultant minimized excursion would correctly predict. The main benefit of the extra woofers to my ears was a much greater sense of hall sound and space. Cardas Golden Reference handled connection duties, while Running Springs Audio conditioned the power and Grand Prix Audio the bad vibes of parasitic resonances. When I complimented Jim on his sound, he told me that the Running Springs Audio gear really brought everything together to give the great sound I heard in the room. Impressive. |
|||||||||||||||||
Okay, the Apple part in the room sign is a joke on my part, but the great sound of Wavelength's new $3500 vacuum tube Cosecant USB DAC [upper left below] running off designer Gordon Rankin's Apple G4 iBook laptop as a transport was no laughing matter. I was so impressed that I hereby award Gordon the Digital Product of CES Award. Not only did the Wavelength Cosecant USB DAC sound great but through the computer, it allows tremendous flexibility to tune your room in the digital realm, which is exactly how Gordon dialed in his space this year. Need to get rid of a bass boom? Zap! It's gone with the computer. Have a pesky treble peak? Zap! It's gone too - you now have total control over what you hear. It's flexible too: You can pop a disc in the computer transport for your musical thrills, or you can download and burn music to disc and play it. But there's more. Because of its USB protocol, there are no jitter problems as with most transport/DAC combinations. Jitter-based timing errors are a thing of the past with this thing. Okay, crystal ball time: This is the future of digital, brought to us by our very own Gordon Rankin at Wavelength Audio. This will be one of the hot new trends, and everyone is gonna have to hustle to catch up. |
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
Gordon was using his new Signature Silver Cobalt 45 stereo amplifier ($25,000) to power the lovely Cain & Cain loudspeakers in what was one of the best-sounding rooms at CES. The attractive wooden chassis of the amp is, in fact, a cleverly machined synthetic resin that so resembles wood as to even duplicate intricate wood joinery where different sub-parts connect. Alas, this material can be specifically tuned for a given resonant frequency, something Gordon took advantage of to minimize chassis talk. |
|||||||||||||||||
One of my personal highlights of the show occurred in Gordon's room when Jazz and classical guitarist Don Better gave me an impromptu guitar lesson on a Telecaster plugged into a GAS Jr. Wavelength Guitar Engine that Gordon had stashed in the back room. Gordon's promised me the GAS Jr. for a review here at 6Moons. Here's a sneak peek: It's got killer tone! |
|||||||||||||||||
One more award for Gordon: The Best Business Card at CES due to his clever USB drive "business card" that stored all of his Wavelength Audio product |
|||||||||||||||||
data, photographs and room information in one handy place. I can guarantee no one's going to toss these! |
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||