The next morning, we attended the Monster press conference. You can say of Monster what you will but Noel Lee remains a trendsetter and visionary of the first order. During the presentation, Noel proudly introduced his new High End Home Theater & Music Experience. In this experience, Monster offers complete home entertainment systems in home- (read spouse) friendly packages which range from tall, multi-multi driver line-source speakers plus corner-table-cum-sub- woofers to a full front-end speaker array that completely frames a flat panel screen. We have to admit that the latter design is attractive even to jaded European eyes. Hidden in a sideboard were all necessary Marsh-designed electronics. Another spouse-friendly feature? The easy way you can pull the sideboard away to facilitate vacuum cleaning. Some dentists are now making a fortune from the teeth grinding this remark caused with the female attendees, signaling our hasty exit to avoid getting caught in the middle of a domestic dispute between strangers.


We then made the choice to start on the 7th top floor and work our way down the stairs to avoid old-fashioned audiophile clogging in the elevators. We were fortunate. One of the first rooms we visited was Bob Visintainer's of New York's Rhapsody Music & Cinema [formerly Avantgarde Music & Cinema], combining for this occasion Audiopax electronics and speakers, Zanden's new four-piece digital front-end, Kubala-Sosna cabling and Grand Prix Audio racks. With Bob and his lady friend Sally, Jim Smith of Avantgarde-USA, Eduardo de Lima of Audiopax as well as Joe Kubala (who was running in and out to optimize his cable setups in many other exhibits as well), this room was one of the very few real musical treats which many other impressions of HE 2004 NYC on 6moons have already confirmed.


That Chord can sound far better than at the HVT show was proven in a room where a simple Chord setup was combined with that of another Brit music lover, Living Voice. John Franks who's got some kind of fetish for blue lights, aluminum and Plexiglas would have been a happy camper here - and with good reason. This combination of relatively affordable gear was non-intrusive while producing real music.


Horny folks that we are, the room with the French Prame HR-2 speakers just begged to be visited. A horn surrounded by twin 12-inch drivers, each in a bass reflex cabinet, the European price of around 4500 Euros proved interesting. We do not know the US price but without shipping, it should be at least 20% higher. From what we heard of these speakers as driven by Jadis, this design needs further attention before it's ready for prime time.


Skipping over as many dark rooms as possible -- no offense to those who fancy all that which happens in the dark, we prefer the lights on -- we had another musical revelation: Living Voices own room. We were so impressed with the music Kevin Scott and his girlfriend were playing that we forgot to take note of the amplifier and CD player used. Even the smaller Avatar loudspeaker produced
enough oomph to really get down with the music, adding a high 94dB sensitivity, easy load behavior and a very musical mien. We listened to Bugge Wesseltoft's album Live [Jazzland 038 500-2], a wonderful Terje Ripdal/Jan Garbarek Lounge/Jazz/Funk hybrid with help from John Scofield. At a spicy level, this was truly great music. No wonder we made an appointment to review these speakers or the bigger model called the Avatar OBX with OutBoard X-overs.


That the proof is always in the eating was demonstrated by the Gingko Audio Cloud 10 isolation platforms in the Robyatt Audio room. Platform designer Vinh Vu connected two vibration sensors to a computer system. One sensor was attached to the shelf of a kitchen-style side table used as an equipment rack, the other to the top of his Cloud 10 platform. The split computer screen showed without a doubt that the vibrations on top of the Cloud 10 were significantly different from those picked up from the shelf underneath. Combine these findings with the utter simplicity of the design -- up to 15 special "racket balls" float the top of an Acrylic box -- and the Cloud 10 can be a serious weapon in the war against vibrational terror. Vinh chose a very appropriate name for his company. The Gingko Bilboa tree is not only the oldest tree in the world and thus a real survivor but also the Asian symbol for unity and permanence. The room further displayed a tweaker's wet dream with a wooden rack stacked to the brim with output tubes. Imagine having such a spice rack from which to pick your favorite tube for the day. Tube rolling is such fun.