Whenever possible however, personal favorites do get some extra attention when we can listen to them in a different setting. Here we came across a pair of Tannoy Westminster Royals. And what can possibly go wrong when they so spontaneously play Renaud Garcia Fons' Arcoluz? It's unexpected encounters like these that make an already great day even better. These vintage dual concentrics still produce a certain magic sound. Even coupled as they were here with a super tweeter that changed the "Westminster sound" into something more forward and modern, the legendary Tannoy sweetness remained.


Exiting the Tannoy room, we ran into Franck Tchang in the hallway next who promptly escorted us to his room. Here he proudly presented his latest creation, the
Acoustic System Tango loudspeaker. Franck is not only the man behind the acoustic resonators which are finally gaining belated but well-deserved acceptance. He is also the designer behind quite a few commercial loudspeaker systems. Now he has combined his ideas and skills in the Tango that will go on sale under his own brand name. Powered by Karan amplification and fed by an Abbingdon Music Research CD player -- that's codesigner Thorsten Loesch of AMR in the picture below -- this speaker proceeded to mesmerize quite a few visitors. While its upright baffle and driver complement appear conventional, what's going on inside the chassis is anything but. It features an elaborate pressure/release system that can't be modeled according to conventional ported alignments and adapts Tchang's complex Acoustic System concept to loudspeakers.


Avantgarde Acoustic finally decided to pull out all the stops and take on some most serious schlepping by bringing to the show their flagship Trio Omega hornspeaker with a double set of Basshorns. The system was most impressive visually but gentle as can be to listen to. Many visitors who had never heard such an elaborate full-range horn system before seemed at first overwhelmed by its sheer physical scale but very soon floated away on the music. Because Avantgarde systems are inherently large, the company has produced miniatures that were proudly displayed in a case. Dealers who cannot put all of the actual models on display can still show the full lineup in proportionate sizing.


An unexpected Avantgarde show premiere came by way of the new Model Three integrated amplifier. With a staggeringly minuscule Class A power rating of 1.5wpc at 20 ohms or 0.5wpc at 8 ohms, this amplifier was naturally custom-designed for Avantgarde horns or other ultra-efficient speakers well above 100dB. The cascaded power stage outputs a respectable 32wpc when running in Class A/B at 8 ohms for those who either play their horns very loud or don't quite enjoy Avantgarde's 110dB+ sensitivities.


Something approaching audio heaven was offered in the room where Kharma, Wavac and Continuum Audio Labs had set up camp. Last years' top-of-the-line Kharma Grand Exquisite had been replaced by the physically no less impressive Exquisite Reference which was played on either Kharma's own Matrix 350 Class D amplifiers or Wavac's enormous HE-833 SET powerhouses. The source was the new Continuum Audio Labs The Criterion turntable with Copperhead arm.
This system produced the same magic and showcased the same utterly effortless capabilities to recreate a piano in the room just as the top-billing system had last year when the ne-plus-ultra Continuum Caliburn/Cobra deck reigned. Where the Caliburn turntable combination requires a full second mortgage, the Criterion can be yours for substantially less - less than a concert grand in fact. Make no mistake, the piano revival from a vintage Decca Rachmaninov LP in this room was completely convincing so that math does work out better than you might think. Michael Fremer of Stereophile took notice as well.


A fundamentally different sound was offered by the
MBL room. As usual, the large system was played rather loud and many in the room seemed fond of the characteristics on tap. So far we were never struck favorably by MBL at shows and this proved no exception though we do share fond memories of an MBL system which we encountered once in a private environment in Boston. Perhaps we should look at MBL a bit more closely outside show conditions?


Our next room saw a collaboration between
KR Audio, TW Acustic and Cessaro Horn Acoustics where we duly met with the makers of the Kronzilla amplifiers, the Raven turntables and the Cessaro horns. This combination proved one of our favorites at the event. The sound was warm and natural and certainly most ably assisted by the use of many undulating wood panels. No wonder there were smiles all around here. [Marja, Ralph Krebs,Thomas Woschnik and Eunice Kron below.]


From plenty of wood, copper and vacuum tubes, we then made a big leap into the
behold world of brushed aluminum and ultrasonic digital. Designer Ralf Ballmann was very enthusiastic about his latest offering, the Gentle integrated amplifier. In this case, the word integrated encompasses more than one would expect. And yes, the Gentle is an integrated amplifier in the common sense first. In basic trim, it accepts four S/PDIF inputs and handles sampling rates from 32kHz/24-bit to 192kHz/24-bit. The input signal is greeted by two double D/A converters and then handed over to two 160wpc fully balanced power amplifiers with discrete switch-mode power supplies to make recalcitrant power conditioners redundant. On top of this, even the basic version is equipped with an Ascendo room-correction system. As with all behold equipment, a PC connection is included, in this case via twin USB ports to enable firmware and software upgrades. Phono lovers needn't feel left out as behold also offers a separate phono-to-digital solution outputting a 24/192 stream ready for the standard Gentle which beckons further with three hardware upgrades. You can add analog inputs that are subsequent converted to 24/192 for further processing or add six analog inputs and corresponding converters if you like multi channel. Next, additional power may be added by way of two additional balanced 160wpc amplifier boards. And the specifications go on and on. All features and settings are operated via either a wide touch screen display or a remote aka hand-held PC. The Gentle can also accept a streaming Internet connection and it is foreseeable that the installed hard disk may be employed for music storage. With a fair starting price of 7500 euros, behold has indeed dispatched a strong contender into the market.


Adam Audio is a pro audio manufacturer from Germany who now focuses also on the consumer market. Clad in cubits of aluminum, their speakers were equipped with proprietary Accelerated Ribbon Technology drivers, an extension of Oscar Heil's air motion transformer from the 70s whose patents expired. Here the tweeter and midrange units employ folded lamella diaphragms whose structures squeeze air like an accordion, resulting in five times greater displacement speeds than one gets from conventional dome/cone drivers. The event displayed two Adam speakers using this technology, the Tensor Beta and the positively gargantuan OSS.



Over in the Melody Valve HiFi and WLM room, a proven combination of hard-hung paper cone drivers and tubes had entered a new stage. The new WLM Grand Viola Signature speaker in its second generation was a revelation. By using a new whizzer-equipped wideband driver in combination with the apparently horn-loaded Signature PAC tweeter, the sound in the fairly large room was more open than any previous WLM speaker we have heard. The use of the wideband Eminence paper-cone driver without aluminum phase plug was probably the reason why the perceived sound remained so comfortably natural and free of any zinginess. We could have stayed here for hours on end listening to this sound.


Furutech keeps surprising vinylistas with new tools. Their latest addition was a Disc Flattener. Think of the trouser presses you find in upscale hotels but now for warped vinyl. Open the flattener, insert a record -- nothing else and no sleeves -- close and press the button. A few minutes later, your twisted record is as flat as the earth was once believed to be a few centuries ago.


Granted, it was multi-channel which tends to not be our favorite. All too often, the surround channels are far too directional and obvious. Yet the demonstration in the
Audio Physic room was admittedly far from unpleasant, this mostly due to exceedingly smart software selections compliments of Turtle Records' own Harry van Daalen.