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The joint TW Acustic/Cessaro exhibit seems to see an upward progression in the same space each year. This affords comparative impressions where the first tone sets the stage. Thomas Woschnick assumed DJ offices and played his favorite vinyl on the new TW Acustic Raven LTD. This turntable shed the more high-tech nudist look of its stable mates to favor a more compact modest aesthetic. At the loudspeaker end was a pair of Ralph Krebs Cessaro Gamma I with surprisingly only one Basshorn per side. Amplification for the latter came by way of new Cessaro monos, two per side. A pair of Ypsilon 300B monoblocks powered the Gamma horns. The Greeks also supplied the phono stage and preamp. Here system and room were a team and worked together. All six drivers left and right acted in unity. No matter how overpowering the looks of the system, once you sit down, relax and let the music engulf you—Thomas does like his guitar heroes—it’s hard to imagine things could get much better. So forget the thought and go with the music. Only after a record side is over and twenty odd minutes have passed you return to this reality. What you did not need or want to know while in that reality now returns. Dynamics, details, timing - all these qualities contribute to a realistic illusion. In this reality of the High End 2011 Thomas and Ralph knew how to create that reality.


Silbatone of Korea is a very special company. Put a bit undiplomatically, it is the hobby horse of a Korean industrial. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Everyone should have a hobby horse. Part of their hobby is collecting vintage audio gear. We’re not talking about old radios or other small stuff. This is about huge Western Electric theater systems - and not one or two but tens of them. Add a gigantic collection of drivers—field coil, compression, other—plus hundreds of amplifiers from the golden era of theater audio and you haven’t begun to grasp the scope of this collection. It is simply immense. To give back a bit to more 'ordinary' audio lovers, they formed Silbatone. All their products are silver wired, equipped with silver wound transformers, broadcast-type capacitors, rare tubes and if possible battery power.


Unfortunately pricing is as hefty as the weight of many Silbatone products so the ordinary audio lover needs to become more extraordinary. Fortunately the company’s president Mr. Chang has a big heart. He is willing to fund the shipping and setup of one or more of his big systems at shows around the world. Under the aegis of Silbatone providing amplification and some static displays in Munich they flew in a giant Western Electric 16B Mirrophonic theater system. Original WE drivers are hard to find and often in poor shape. For the 16B show piece affair Mr. Chang contacted Suzuki-san of Global Intelligence Planning Acoustic Laboratory or GIP. Suzuki-san produces very limited amounts of compression and field coil drivers and was very willing to help. The result was a 16B theater system retrofitted with GIP drivers.


In fact GIP drivers are modern-day versions of classic WE drivers built to the same designs but with modern materials where possible, elsewhere with vintage materials. In Munich’s large room, the 16B proved that people in 1928 people had very good ears. Listening conditions were less ideal than during previous shows but sufficient for an impression. A metal horn can sound fluid, sufficiently warm and dynamic. Summed up the result was an unpolished very ‘live’ sound. To the left and right of the 16B, Silbatone had set up loudspeakers under the GIP brand. A pair of 18-inch fixed-edge field coil woofers got support from a front horn. Another GIP field coil driver but now of the compression variety was loaded by a highly polished wooden bi-radial horn commissioned for midrange duties. Another field coil driver handled the top. All of these field coils meant a lot of power supplies and amplifiers. Switching from the refurbished 16B to the new GIP system added some richness while the character of the WE system remained very obviously intact for a 1928 meets 2011. As the 16B is more or less mono, the dual GIP speakers of course were more capable of casting a three-dimensional soundstage. Little did we know that we were to encounter these speakers much closer up well past the show. In Munich the impression was interesting but what else was there?


Better listening conditions and better music were to be found in the hornspeaker system of Tune Audio of Greece. Just like Avantgarde, Cessaro, WE and GIP, the size of the full system would be somewhat impractical in most listening environments. The Aries Cerat electronics from Cyprus alone are sized like kitchen cabinets. Like our Editor, the Tune Audio Anima 3-way horns with active Pulse horn-loaded subwoofer formed our musical highlight of the 2011 High End edition. Greece may be struggling economically but on the audio front the spark burns brightly, with plenty of other interesting stuff like the Arcadian Audio Pnoe hornspeaker we recently reviewed.


Horns may be crafted from a wide variety of materials and Färber Acoustic Art chose stone to carve CNC assisted spherical horns, with treble frequencies handled by a Karlson coupler. For the bottom end large subwoofers housed in conventional wooden boxes did the trick. Too bad this room fell under the category of show don’t tell where music wasn’t the focus. Hired models presented fancy drinks and snacks but well… okay, there were horns on display. ‘Nuff said.


Another too bad was French Musique Concrete. Though Srajan had been very positive when he visited them on their own turf in Southern France, the Munich showing had switched away from the previous infraplanar subwoofer to a stereo set with a large dynamic Styrofoam driver and the combination with the Swedish Lars amplifier seemed to suffer compatibility issues. The sound lacked character and had us leave after a short while.


The Japanese at Audio Tekne build everything from analog source to cables and amplification to hornspeakers and various tweaks. Their room was filled with their signature industrial gunmetal grey equipment. In line with that aesthetic approach was the very bits ‘n’ pieces 4-way horn system. A 38cm woofer with massive 20cm magnet fitted in an open-backed enclosure held down the low end.


The midrange saw a carbon horn curving high toward the ceiling. The upper frequencies used a hornloaded tweeter assisted by an additional super tweeter. All drivers were by ALE and characterized by massive magnets that weighed 60kg by themselves. Music reproduced here was the most colored we heard during our High End visit but it also sounded the most live of all. It was hard to say whether the colorations stemmed from the speakers or associated gear. Despite all its flaws the system competed for impressiveness with the WE 16B setup.