This page is supported in part by the sponsors whose ad banners are displayed below

A: As any other industry, audio is always about the lastest and, presumably, greatest. It's easy then to forget or lose context. For example, who today remembers that it was 47 Laboratory who started the entire (non-'digital') chip-amp craze? And while my history is a bit hazy on the next point, 47lab's maverick designer Junji Kimura was also one of the first if not the first to author what's nowadays referred to as an NOS or non-oversampling CD player or DAC.


Hosted by Sead Lejlic of Konus Audio Systems who proudly features in the very first 6moons industry feature ever back in June of 2002; and with Junji the man in attendance whom I'd never met; 47lab is naturally aware of the 'latest greatest' pressure. It plagues everyone in audio, even those who make good stuff that needs no improvements. In this instant, 47lab needed a new entry point below its Shigaraki series. MidNight Blue is the answer. For now there's a tuner but a CD/receiver -- either in one enclosure or two, I don't recall -- is also in the works.


And is it ever cute, the MidNight Blue tuner. A 3-D dig that dial, dude reaction seems entirely normal.


Beside the utter-rethink PiTracer player, Junji and Sead had also brought the -- at least visually -- quite radical 47lab turntable with its counter-rotating twin platters.


If we apply the ol'e equal/opposite reactionary bit, this approach would have to cancel out mechanical vibrations to a high degree.


The bird's eye view shows how a single belt can spin both platters in opposite directions. And while I didn't know how to say cheese in Japanese, Junji cracked up just joking about it anyway.


Here's a close up of the arm and the stand-the-concept-on-its-head CD player/transport. Not that stacking four single-driver monitors cheek-by-cheek is entirely common. Or building equipment supports from corrugated paper.


The other cool thing in either of the two 47lab rooms was the music. The Milan show sported extensive software booths on the lower floors. I came home with a bundle. But the m.a. album Sead played me (and which I photographed so I'd remember it) proved elusive so I'll get it from Todd Garfinkle's site directly - even if only for that one killer track I heard here.


Playing good music is of course vital at such events. Having a small room very much helps. You'll only have a limited number of listeners at any given time. This minimizes the very real risk of driving out the masses with stuff only one or two like or requested. Having a really big room as Audio Point and Focal did carries another huge liability besides raw cost. Expectations. When you put together a room with $500,000 worth of gear -- I'm pulling an arbitrary big number out of my hat to make a point -- you automatically elevate expectations to where you'll nearly guaranteed won't match them. No matter how good the demo, it would have to be perfect, including playing just the right music at just the right volume. And that differs from person to person, seat to seat. Basically, you can't win. It's a lot easier to dazzle people by given them more than expected from an affordable system in a small or mid-size room.


What would the average showgoer expect from diminutive boxes and four tiny drivers per side in a funky stack? Not much. What one got here was a toe-tappin' shock the Naimies would have loved. So the 47lab rooms once again drove home why you wouldn't be wrong to call these folks the anti-hifi brigade. In short, no Diana Krall (though I'm sure Sead would have played anything you asked him to). Blaring Balkan brass and other non-mainstream attractions it was. Yes!


Acapella showed with the gorgeous Metronome Kallista and VTL in the Audio Broker exhibit.


Acccustic Arts showed their new Drive II transport in the Hi Fi Carucci exhibit.