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DeVore Fidelity, Tone Imports: Much to my liking Ella Fitzgerald April In Paris was spinning on a Well-Tempered turntable with EMT cartridge. The Gibbon 88 speaker (about $5.000/pr) was being debuted by John DeVore.  Musicality and coherence reigned supreme. What caught my eye in a big way was a new line of Chinese-made tube electronics called Line Magnetic being imported by Tone Imports.  The amp played was the 219IA integrated amp (and 845 SET).  This firm has quite a range of electronics based on classic tubes as well as copies of highly regarded Western Electric drivers and horns including field-coil drivers and tube power supplies… even Tungar supplies. Whoa!


Highwater Sound, Robyatt Audio, Thales Tonearm, TW Acustic, Silent Running, Miyajima, Prana Wire: I always look forward to seeing what beautiful and exotic products Jeffrey Catalano will show.  This year was no disappointment with the huge Cessaro Affascinate I SE horn speakers looming over the room. These $62.000/pr speakers are true works of art with a wood midrange horn with 5-inch thick side walls. Jeffrey’s—and now Robin Wyatt’s—formidable collections of real music LPs (i.e. not audiophile-approved selections) could easily keep one planted here all day. On a later Pablo Records Ella Fitzgerald LP, her voice was full and delicate. A Sinatra LP was able to show off the speakers’ powerfully expressive midrange horn. Switching over to mono I noted some edgy and shouty qualities on the vocal but I’m thinking this was probably from the recording and not the speaker since I did not hear this on other LPs played. A Thoress phono preamp was connected to the Tron Seven line stage and then into the Tron 211 SET amp (which I own and love in a previous version).


Von Schweikert, HD Acoustics, Purity Design, M2Tech: The attractive design of the Purity electronics caught my eye the second I entered this room. They had a number of the Purity components on passive display along one wall and were using the Purity Ultra GT+ line stage in the system. A pair of unnamed 200-watt OTL tube amps using 3-volt television sweep tubes were used for amplification.  The system component list can be found here. The Andreas Kapsalis & Goran Ivanovic Guitar Duo was playing from an M2Tech Young DAC with Purity Audio power supply and Purity Audio Harmony Stereo Balanced Buffer stage. The latter is of particular interest as proper impedance matching between components is an oft-overlooked aspect of system synergy. I know that Pass Labs offers a buffer stage (FirstWatt B1 buffer preamplifier) and it makes a lot of sense when you don’t need additional gain in the system to interface directly into an amplifier but want proper impedance matching. The guitar sounded a little crisp and forward for my taste but there was excellent definition and body.  A classical piece that followed had good imaging and dynamic shading at low level.

Tidal Audio, Sphere Audio Systems: Tidal was showing their 'budget' speakers, the Tidal Piano Cera powered by Tidal solid-state electronics. Front end was a laptop computer playing into a dCS Paganini DAC I believe. Listening to a double bass music selection, a room resonance in the bass became clearly evident to mar what otherwise sounded very clean and balanced. Fortunately I decided to move up a seat row and it was much better there. I noted that the system was well composed on even the most complex and dynamic musical peaks. There was plenty of refinement too.


Estelon, Alfred & Partners, Kubala Sosna, Concert Fidelity, Running Springs: The artistic way in which the Estelon XA speakers ($43.900/p) were presented in this room was truly special. The speakers are sculptural art in themselves but the design of the backdrop for the speakers made the perfect complement. Other components in use included a Hanss T-60 turntable, Neodio CD player, Bricasti Design Model 1 DAC, Andros PS1 phono stage and Concert Fidelity amps. Rodrigo y Gabriela’s version of Stairway to Heaven was playing and very open and beautiful. There was a super clarity to the sound and a percussive rap on the guitar body was reproduced as realistically as I have ever heard. My friend Dean requested to play a Branford Marsalis track (number three) from Eternal that we had been using as a test and it was quite revealing. There was a sense of very low distortion along with a very live quality. Branford’s sax was a little edgy on peaks though which is one of the areas where I have been critical of such ceramic drivers in the past. I know others are raving about these speakers and I can see why. They are standard setting in many ways. Another criticism I had was in the treble performance. The cymbals on the Branford Marsalis cut were a little dead sounding especially in comparison to how we heard this cut in prior rooms.


Avatar Acoustics, Rosso Fiorentino speakers, AMR, Acoustic System, Monk Audio: Darren Censullo of Avatar Acoustics always has a meticulous setup and sensible brand/component selection. The AMR AM-77.1 integrated amplifiers ($9.995/ea.) were being used in vertical biamp mode to power the Rosso Fiorentino Sienna speakers ($26.995/pr). The turntable was the Feickert Blackbird ($7.995) with DFA 12.0 tonearm ($1.495) and Lyra Kleos cartridge ($.2995). It was played into the AMR PH-77 phono stage ($11.995). CD player duties were done by the AMR CD-77.1 CD player ($10.995) and DP-777 DAC ($4.995). Lastly there was an AMI-HIFI Mini Server music player ($.2995). Acoustic System International supplied the cables, equipment racks and isolation feet. My friend Dean,played Peter Gabriel's Up CD he brought along and felt that the bass was not as powerful as at his house where he has four 15-inch woofers per channel! I thought the sound was very good with a very realistic and solid soundstage. On vinyl the Kleos had good weight and body. This cartridge/system seems to play all kinds of music well.