PART II

Do these look familiar? If you have been around audio for 20 years or more, they should. They are Apogee Scintillas, long out of production, but they're baaaaack!

It has taken an Australian named Graeme "GRAZ" Keet to revive the brand while Richard Murray represents the company stateside. These are his personal speakers. Graz currently rebuilds and improves Apogees for owners of the originals, but he is in the process of offering new ones with several important improvements; making them more stable with better footers and other improvements that make them much more amp friendly and easier to drive. I remember the sound of these well and if his are an indication of what is to come, we say BRING THEM ON! Expected price for a pair is north of $20K.

JD: Here's something new from a German company named Bastanis. The speaker is the Apollo at $21,600. They use impressive quality parts such as 12" AlNiCo wide band drivers in a crossoverless configuration from 100-10,000Hz. Tweeters are dipole horns above 10k and a 15" powered subwoofer in each cabinet. Pretty impressive technology from a company best known for their DIY kits. The resplendant amps you see are by Navison. More on them in our upcoming "Amplifiers" show report. Be sure to check back.

Ryan Scott: The Bastanis Apollo is a unique design to say the least.  They feature a custom horn-loaded and dipole 1” tweeter, a 12” wide-band midrange driver, and an active 15” driver bass section.  There was a lot of marketing fluff and braggadocio going on in the room, but the only question is how do they sound for $20K plus.  They seem to do a lot of things right, good imaging and integration, and relatively dynamic.  I thought they were a bit lacking in midrange resolution, and the tone of acoustic guitar seemed a touch off.  Still I think it’s a product that definitely deserves some attention, I’d happily spend time with them and expect they’re a speaker that would be quite enjoyable over time.

If you read our recent Small Speaker Shootout, you will recognize this top speaker as the British LS3/5a clone from Gini. Everyone liked the sound of the small standmount, but though it really needed a bit more lower end. Gini must have listened because here is a prototype add-on woofer made just for little Gini. No price yet, buy we can tell you that the sound was incredible - room-filling, warm and dynamic. Way to go Gini.

Kharma - a name that made some reviewers in the print mags practically soil themselves (for a month or two), premiered a new speaker. It is the Mini-Grand Ceramique - at $33,000, it is less than half the price of its $80K Midi Exquisites, but producing a large part of the sound, helped along by a 20 grand MBL preamp and the Tenor monoblocks at $75k. Joe Kubala contributed about $15k in cables, too.

The sound was very good, but I can say that nobody we know (none of our staff and none of the many, many people we queried at the show) had this on their "Best of Show" list. There could be several reasons for that, but we found that fact interesting.

Now here is a speaker company that had a lot of people talking. Daedalus Audio.

This was the World Premiere of their Reference Series. The big ones you see here are the Ulysses at only $8,800 per pair. If you don't want the grills, you can deduct $300 from that! Don't you wish more companies did that? Truly breathtaking sound here. Pinpoint imaging in a very dynamic presentation.

Drivers are 2 - 1" Eaton dome tweeters, 2 - 5" modified Fostex full rangers and 2 - 8" made by Daedalus itself for a total of 6 per speaker. Surprisingly, they are also very efficient at 97 db and 6 ohms, proven by the power they exhibited driven by Joe Fratus' wonderful Art Audio SET amps. There was detail by the tons and an overall "exquisite" sound - even though there was no "ceramic" to be found.

Daedalus is known more for their pro audio for recording studios and concert halls and even guitar amps. They have a true understanding what real music should sound like and it shows. "The guitar in the left corner is not for show. I've been a pro guitarist for 20 years", said the speaker designer.

We are anxious to review a pair of these.

The smaller ones are the DA-RMa's which use three of the Ulysses' driver count at $4,450.

Ryan Scott: JD, gonna have to parts ways with you on impressions of the Deadalus Ulysses.  To me they lacked focus, the signal felt smeared in the time domain.  For me that led to a less-than-solid image and loss of micro-dynamics.  I should note however that I only listened for 3-4 minutes, I have been wrong before … but don’t tell anyone!

It was a pleasure to meet Robert Lee who was showing his new big Zen's dubbed the Crescendo. It has two 8" woofers, two 5" mids, and a horn loaded ribbon tweeter and is front ported. Robert told us it is a true full range speaker going down to 20Hz. Price is $12,50. Driven by Halcro (if you read our Halcro review, you know where the name "Halcro" came from, the new Zens threw a large, detailed and clean soundstage. They sounded a bit more up front than the Adagios and perhaps a bit faster, too. The bass was full and complete without a bit of boominess. Time to trade in your Adagios?

Something else brand new - so new that everything you see is a prototype.

The small amps are the Becky34's at 40 class a wpc.

The middle amps are the Alpha X1 monos. Pure class A at 10 wpc.

On the floor are the Alpha 2000's for $9k with 20 wpc.

Rau also makes the tower speakers you see at $7,500.

This was there first show, but perhaps they are not quite ready for prime time yet.

Worth keeping an eye on.

I arrived at this room 30 minutes before the show closed on Sunday. It was not intentional, but I'm thrilled it worked out that way. Though it was my first meeting with Albert Von Schweikert, it turned into the best time I had in Denver. We ended up talking for two hours and most of that was not about his speakers. It turns out we have a lot in common. He was in a band that played in my town in the 1960'. We're both musicians and the coincidences just kept coming up. We share a lot of the same philosophies and attitudes about things audio and just life experiences. And hair color.

He even shared something extremely top secret that will have a huge impact at some point in the near future. I can't even give you a hint.

You might notice that the amp on the floor is not by Channel Island. Rather, it's the new tube integrated by Audio Space which we'll cover in our Amplifiers report we are working on now. I think I can say that he liked it with his VR 4s. So did I. Their soundstage was so stable that you could walk around the room and still hear a perfect stereo image. He even had me walk behind the speakers to hear the same thing.

You might take note of the ultra wide speaker cables. He built them himself from military surplus, but more on that later, too. I'm anxious to do a review of his products just so I can work with him on the review. Great guy. Great sound. Great fellowship. Thanks Albert.

Bet you don't know who makes these speakers. Anyone? No?

These are the DP-1 dipoles from Lyngdorf. Yes. The famous amp company. And yet another open baffle design.

They are intended to be used with their subwoofer for freqs below 300. A Scanspeak 1" handles the top while a 6.5" Seas handles the rest.

The front baffle, which reminds Linda of a tuxedo, is 7 layers of MDF under 10 layers of hand rubbed lacquer. With the sub in, they sounded remarkable. Extremely fast and pretty darned musical.

Bet you can't name these, either. Once you hear the name, you will remember it, though.

Jumping Cactus. No kidding. Interesting design. These cacti are made from aluminum, at least the enclosures.

They use an external Marchaund active crossover to a freq range of 65Hz - 20,000 Hz, they say. The crossover is built for a sub to be added. Good idea.

Drivers are all paper cones (good idea again) made by Emminence. The two top cubes swivel for optimum room tuning.

PRICE: $9300 ($7800 for speakers + $1500 for the XM44-4AA active crossover per Marchand Electronics price sheet, , Includes “Billy Bags” Custom 10" tall Speaker Stands.

The sound was good, but not great for me. $9,300 buys a lot of speakers we covered here. Most sounded better.

I was a bit piqued when I saw these from the outstanding speaker and amp company, LSA. I had recently bought the same Monitor One in the Signature model for use as a stand mount reference. Then I see these at the show with a new ribbon tweeter and other upgrades, now called the Statement. "Don't worry, James. We'll give you a trade up...". Cool, I just wish I had known about these babies. They sound flat incredible.

Jim Salk and his gorgeous wife Mary are two of our favorite people in the speaker biz. The problem is, every speaker Jim makes is sold right away with other orders waiting to be filled, so it's impossible for him to make a pair for us to review. Jim not only makes great sounding speakers (all 100% USA), he builds some of the most beautiful and elegantly finished cabinets in the world. He really is an artisan and an artist. Other companies always are calling him asking him if he can build cabinets for them.

Well, the show was over and as he was leaving the hotel he came over and said he'd like us to review one of his speakers. I about fell over. No other publication has ever reviewed his speakers. We are honored.

Ryan Scott:The Salk HT3’s were playing when I entered, with the newly introduced Song Towers on display.  With pricing starting at $3899/pair for the HT3’s they’d almost be worth it if they didn’t even come with drivers, the cabinet is that beautiful.  The sound was very nice as well, with a delicate top-end from the Fountek ribbon tweeter and good tone and resolution from the Seas W18EX midrange driver.  I did feel like the bass wasn’t all that well integrated however.  There was plenty of it, just that it didn’t quite keep up with the rest of what’s being pumped out. 

From Japan comes the Premium Sound Design or "PSD" line. The T3 you see here, even at $20,000 is not there most expensive speaker. The T2 is $30,000.

This T3 is a 3 way, 4 driver design available in 4 finishes weighing 174 lbs each.

Very transparent, full bodied yet light and airy. Unusually natural and organic sounding. Instruments of wood sounded very woody indeed, but electric guitars, cymbals and other non-organic instruments a bit shallow. Not the fastest response at the show, but particularly lovely and beautiful sounding.

Here's a name you should know. The Brits at Spendor have been around for a long time, spreading the gospel of the "British dip"in the frequency spectrum that, while not accurate, makes for more lush, laid back, "pleasing" listening. For over two decades Spendor was licensed to manufacture the legendary LS3/5a BBC mini-monitor loudspeaker. It became an international reference standard. In 1998 when Spendor learned that manufacture of the LS3/5a drive units was to cease, they decided to develop their own 140mm (5inch) bass-midrange drive unit using modern materials and technology. Combining this with a small 20mm Vifa soft dome tweeter, new crossover engineering and a more up-to-date look they created the Spendor S3/5.

The "British Dip" came about to make speech more intelligible over the radio and later BBC TV. The BBC engineers also wanted a speaker that was less fatiguing since they had to listen to the things 8 or more hours a day.

The latest incarnation is this; the  S3. For $1,500 you get a speaker cabinet as solid as cement and first rate drivers - and bass that rolls off around 60Hz. The frequency response, they say, has been adjusted so some of the Brit Dip is not as, um, dippy, but the sound is still very smooth and flattering. Spendor also makes a very full line of other models as well.

JD: Darren Consullo is an amazing guy. Not only is he an ardent and knowledgeable audiophile, he is also a distributor (a thankless job if there ever was one) of some very high end audio gear. He is well equipped for thankless jobs as he is also an F-16 fighter jock (thanks for your service, Darren) and a Delta airline pilot.

He also has a intelligent, classy, witty wife named Bonnie who also happens to be drop dead gorgeous, that keeps him in line and (I think) in business as the VP of Avatar Acoustics and room hostess/cappuccino maker.

The speakers we listened to while sipping a cappuccino were the Tango's by the audio Master, Franck Tchang.  Frank, among other things, is famous for his Acoustic Resonators. Can you spot them in the picture above? (OK, stop looking at Bonnie...) They are the small squares on top of each speaker and each component. They aren't actually squares at all.

They look like this:

 Many people swear they make a hugh difference in room acoustics. We are about to find out when Darren and Bonnie come to visit from nearby Miami in a couple of weeks to"do" our listening rooms. Stay tuned.

Back to the speakers, which also employ the Resonators internally. They are designed in three stages:

First stage = fixed driver with maximum tension on the cabinet, letting all drivers produce maximum air pressure inside enclosure.

Second stage = use nature material (woods), the resonance material in use must be opposite to the driver’s material breaking resonance so that it is to reach the desired resonance frequencies. By placing these materials at strategic points, they cancel the standing wave created by air pressure produced from the drivers, and the density of material convert part of the pressure into tension. This tension, they say, is very useful in equalizing the pressure inside the mid & high driver’s compartments.

Third stage = open some small ports (a few mm) on & behind the cabinet to evacuate excess pressure. The precision of these ports are +/- a half mm.

Mr. Tchang says the advantage of this technology is that it avoids using damping technique because any kind of damping will cause loss of harmonics & frequencies to roll off. Energy is completely recycled, so the speakers have no compression, no stress, and are never aggressive.

Driven by AMR electronics, the system did sound glorious - some of the better sound at the show. The Tangos are $13,500 per pair.

Ryan Scott: Sorry JD, I’m gonna have to disagree with you on this one.  Probably the worst room I heard was the Avatar Acoustics room, all I could think when listening was fat and slow – like auditory mud. At least the cabinets were finished well, and that cd player was impressive to behold. 

JD: The speakers just keep on comin'. This is "The Dream Maker" by Duke LeJeune and AudioKinesis.Duke is a perennial favorite on the audio boards and it's easy to see why with his new 92dB-sensitivity, 16 ohm impedance, 170 lb Dream Maker ($9000/pair) that incorporate no just one, but TWO driver arrays - one in front and back. Duke focuses on the reflections and arrival times of early reflections. Early reflections for the most part are very ugly sounding - giving a hollow sound to music.

It is also very fatiguing. That's why you will often see some sort absorptive material on a wall near flanking speakers. It is there early reflections rear their ugly heads. It sounds like Duke is creating his own longer reflections and reverberant field here through a controlled dipole configuration.The idea being to make recordings sound more "live". The vast amount of recordings are not live though, more creations in a studio environment. Is the idea to make those sound more "live", too? I just know that recording engineers jump through hoops to make their studio gigs sound live with use of reverb and many other signal altering devices.

I can say that the speakers sounded really nice on the music playing when I entered. As you can see, the cabinets are radically toed in, crossing way in front of the listener. "They don't play Roger Waters well", Duke told me, referring to the QSound effect employed in "Amused to Death". QSound relies on fooling the brain into thinking it's hearing 3D sound by playing with time and phase. The sound was spacious and lush - attractive. It's not a sound everyone would like (there is no such sound), but in the right space these could be a life saver. We'll find out. "I've never had a review", Duke told me. Duke said he wanted our Texas posse to review them. We are honored!

Ryan Scott: Duke of AudioKinesis was showing his new Dream Makers, and had his Jazz Modules on display.  The name may be a bit narcissistic, but Duke is one of the more humble guys you’ll meet.  Give credit where it’s due, they did sound great.  His choices of drivers and design came together beautifully, totally outside the box thinking.  I’m always wary of compression tweeters, but his was the smoothest I’ve heard.  And the TAD woofer is resolving and well-controlled.  They’re funky looking though, reminded me a bit of Easter Island.

Yet another first hearing, for us anyway. These are the D1 Concerto Reference from NSR Sonic Research.

As you can see, they have a bit of a homemade, DIY look to them, but there is some interesting tech here.

The $32,000 D1's employ what they call an "Acoustic Projection Lens". The NSR Sonic Research Acoustic Projection Lens is one that re-directs sound from the transducer while trapping proportions of the wave. It allows these proportions to be collected and redirected just as with body of a guitar or violin, they say. Finally, the APL is built in a fashion and size to optimize the resonance and project the same, in a correlated beam, without loss or breakup. NSR has developed its own enclosure parameters, essentially employing a tandem pull/pull motor system in a non-resonant/anechoic sealed box. The back panels intentionally resonate "like a real violin or cello".

The bass drivers employed are a 10” aluminum/magnesium alloy driver - front baffle mounted
12” composite cone driver – forward Acoustic Projection Lens (APL)
Low frequency drivers work in a tandem pull/pull configuration

Midranges are:
8” composite Aerogel cone driver - front baffle mounted
8” treated synthetic cone driver – forward APL
6” treated cut paper driver - ambient APL

High frequencies:
1” ScanSpeak Revelator – front baffle mounted
1” direct ring radiator - ambient APL

The sound, I think, was a bit too much for the small room. These need a lot of room to breathe and do their thing. Still, there was a full range, working to go down low in the small space.The sound was very clean, clear and effortless. The soundstage was good, but the speakers failed to disappear into it, again perhaps caused by "small room syndrome".

They do make a smaller version for $4,500 I didn't get to hear. I bet they faired better. Still, there's some real potential here and worth keeping an eye on. And Ryan, these are much more reminiscent of Easter island...

The moment we walked in this room, I heard a loud voice calling , "Mrs. Darby! Mrs. Darby! Linda! We fixed this speaker just for YOU!".

We have seen these Scaena speakers at several shows - maybe all of them. Vegas, NY, Montreal and now RMAF. In New Yrok, Linda had mentioned that they look a little "industrial" because of the extensive bright work on the front around the ribbons. That bright work is now, as you can see, black.

"Do you like it, Linda"?

"I love it! Can I take them home with me now?!".

This was one of our her favorite rooms at the NY Stereophile Show. That and the Proclaims by Dan Herrington. The woman DOES have exquisite taste. Just look who she married!

Fed by The Memory Player and Jeff Smith's Silversmith Wires (thanks for your service to the country, Jeff - he's a Guardsman), the line arrays backed by monstrous subs (but not sounding like monstrous subs) sounded wonderful in Denver as well. They just disappear so completely and leave in their wake nothing but sound stage, sound stage and sound stage - filled with music.

No, they didn't let her take them home, even though they are Floridian neighbors. C'mon guys!

Yeah, I know. I married UP. WAY up! Which reminds me....

I had the great fortune to run into this guy. He's Steve Rochlin, head honcho from our brother publication Enjoy the Music.  No, the two pubs are not related in any other way than the passion we share for music and the things that bring it into our homes. We do not see ourselves as competitors. I wish all other publishers realized that, but they don't.

Now Steve loves gear and writing about it. He also loves cigars. He carries a stash all the time, he said. But what do you think he kept burbling about all the time?

His wife.

Here we are, surrounded by the world's greatest stereo stuff and the people who make it and Steve keeps going on about the real love of his life.

Good for you, Steve. Steve gets it. He has some perspective. He took time to share some of his experiences and offered some sage advice to what others would view as a competitor. You would be amazed at the nasty reception Stereomojo has received from several other editors.

It's sad that some people have such narrow views of the world and inflated views of themselves. Well, Steve made a fan and I hope I made a friend.

Ryan Scott: I don’t know what the primary exhibitor for this booth was, sorry, 4 years of undergrade and a Masters degree and I still don’t know how to take notes.  But I can tell you that the speakers heard were the Peak Consult Empress.  Nice to look at, and fortunately nice to listen to as well.  With a retail of $25K you expect superb construction and performance, and for the most part you get it. 

The use of a ScanSpeak tweeter and AudioTechnology midrange and woofer partially dictates the high cost of admission, but the cabinet construction does as well.  Here you get hardwood sides and a leather baffle.  There are also separate internal chambers for the woofer, midrange, and crossover.  Walls are all thick and well-braced, ranging from 1.5” to 3” thick.  The results, a speaker that images incredibly well and does a great job of putting vocals in the room with you.  My impression was that they were also very well integrated and tonally accurate.  They lacked a bit in dynamics, but have many other positive attributes. 

JD: Uh...Ryan. You took this pic. What does that big poster say in the upper left? Did you think the lass was having a "Berning" pain in her right arm? ;)

Actually, teasing aside, I think several companies, Stillpoints, Berning and Peak Consult joined forces to save money on exibitor fees. This is normal and very necessary. After all, if you only make speakers, you need someone's amps, cables, racks and sources to have them play effectively.

There were several speakers at the show I would own before the Peaks at $25k. Ryan, even your "Speakers That Have No Name or Price" were more engaging. By the way Ryan, we have officially named them the Red Phantoms because of their audacious, piquant hue and the ghostly, spectral shroud of mystery engulfing them!

The Proclaims sound much more dynamic and musical (and much more versatile with their physical and electronic adjustabilty) at $26,000. The VMPS V60 speakers ($9,000-$10,000) also is superior. Bobby Palkovic's Merlin VSM MXe at $10,500 are eminently more musical. The Peak's do a lot of the audiophile tricks, but I've heard the PC's at a few shows and never came away inspired. But that's just my opinion.

Ryan Scott: The AudioNote room was chock-full of AN gear, a full digital and analog rack as well as the AN-E speakers. Peter Qvortrup of former Snell fame builds the speakers with a lot of the same design philosophy applied 'back in the day'. Like the original Type E, the AN-E's use a 1" dome tweet and a 8" paper cone woofer. I used to own a pair of Snell E's, and can say that these AN-E's are similar in the emotion they convey. Where they differ however is well, everything else. The AN-E's are simply much better. To get right to it, they're just a simple, nice-sounding speaker. They draw you into the music, not with dynamics or detail, but with emotion. They're a warm and relaxing speaker, perfect for that man room where all you want to do is sip a double malt and forget about everything. I'd imagine they're not very critical of upstream components either, since they are 95db sensitive and somewhat non-revealing in nature. But the price caught me off guard, over $12K for a pair. Gulp!

Ryan Scott: I’ve always been a fan of Tyler Acoustics, Ty sure knows how to finish a cabinet, and he’s one of the nicest guys in the industry.  I was excited to hear his new Woodmere II’s, but was a bit let down once I did.  They were a bit dull and lifeless to my ears.  I should have spent more time talking with Ty, it almost sounded like they weren’t broken in yet.  Bonus points for the killer looking rack from Edge (one of my favorite looking racks at the show), and bonus for having a killer raffle prize – a pair of Taylo Ref Monitors.  But intimately knowing what the Seas Mag cone drivers and Millenium tweeter are capable of, I expected more. 

JD: If your speakers sound dull and lifeless driven by Edge Electronics, made a few minutes from my home, something is amiss for sure. And you're right, Ryan. Tylers are usually pretty good. Don't know what the problem was here. Probably the room.

Bill Schuchard: Wilson brought a set of their Sophia speakers ($11,700) in Aspen Metallic silver finish. They delivered fine sound but in that color, reminded me of very expensive trash cans. OUCH, Bill! - publisher

Ryan Scott: Wilson's Sophia’s and an Audio Research electronics stack.  The new Sophia’s use a Focal Kevlar tweeter with a new rear chamber, ScanSpeak Revelator midrange, and a 10” aluminum cone woofer.  The cabinet is finished perfectly, but looks are a take it or leave it affair – for me I’d leave it.  Overall I found the sound enjoyable, but male vocals can get a bit muddy.  This causes the stage to collapse at times, and ultimate midrange resolution just isn’t there.  Top end is definitely extended and airy however, and bass was well integrated.  But I’d simply expect more for around $14K.

JD: I have heard these at every show this year. This was not their finest showing - mainly I think, because Peter McGrath, who sets these up better than anyone in the world, was in Russia. He also wasn't there to play his original recordings in 24 bit. I got to spend a couple of hours with him and Michael Fremer in a private showing at the NY show. The Sophia's sounded marvelous, but they were even better in Montreal where the huge room was tuned to the teeth. They were everyone's "Best Sound at Show" including ours as everyone knows by now. As is the case with most speakers at any show, or any home system for that matter, the room plays an immense role. In a bad room, any system can not only look like trash cans, but sound like them, too.

Ryan Scott: Big Sky Hi-Fi room was showing off some BC Acoustique speakers and an impressively built Audia Flight amplifier.  The speakers I heard were the $6200 A3’s.  They feature a horn loaded compression tweeter developed with Fostex, a poly cone Seas midrange, and an aluminum cone side loaded Seas woofer.  Honestly the tweeter really lets these speakers down, it sounds a bit like it looks – metallic.  The cabinets are built like tanks however with great engineering practices applied, and a nice looking if a bit utilitarian finish.  Smooth out that tweeter and they’d have a winner. 

JD: I often wonder what kind of psycological effect metal coloring (and material of the cones) has on the perceived sound of speakers. If the cones look metallic, does it influnce how we view the sound? I tried to get a couple for our speaker blind shootout, but was not successful. That would have been interesting if anyone would have said "These sound like aluminum cones". I agree though, they sounded fast but a bit etched and uninspiring musically and emotionally. Nice bass, though.

Lots more to come from Stereomojo. Even more speakers, plus a huge report on amps, new turntables, arms and carts and lots of other things that are worth mentioning that were highlights in Denver.  Please be sure to bookmark us and come back. As you can see, there are many reviews coming soon from the best products at the show. We will also be awarding our "Best Of" recognitions.