Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2009 Show Report
PART 6
Quick. Take a look at this new turntable. How much do you think it is?
Platter is over 5" think and weighs over 40 pounds.
Total weight of the table is over 165 pounds (75 kg)
Has Dual Synchronized European AC Motors - made in same factory as Pro-jec
The inverted bearing is magnetically floating ceramic
Motors and speed controllers are external
Includes Record Clamp, Acrylic Stroboscope and Level Meter
Accepts two arms mounted
Have you guessed yet?
When we were told the price, Linda wrote it down as $62,000
Considering other tables we've seen, that's not out of line. The new TW Acustic Black Knight we showed you earlier is $40,000
Actual price?
$6,200
What's the catch? None really, just that's it made in China. Graham arm and Soundsmith cartridge not included. But then each of those cost almost as much as the table.
How did it sound? Like anything at the show, it's very hard to tell, but it sure didn't sound bad.
It is made by HANSS Acoustics. They have two other models at $4,600 and $3,000. We have requested a review.
Stereomojo's owner/editor had a big surprise late one night as he was walking through the lobby. He heard his name called and turned around to see this guy walking towards him.
The man said, "Hi James...my name is Jack Bybee". Anyone who has been around high-end audio for any time know that name. Jack is a legend who makes accessories that improve the sound of amps, speakers, cables and just about everything in your system. While we have never reviewed any of his products, Mr. Bybee proceeded to say the most wonderful things about Stereomojo, our no-nonsense honest reviews and on and on. We didn't even know he was a reader. Darby was honored and humbled by the accolades and expressed that to Jack. He told James that he'd like for us to review his latest and James replied that we would be honored. "I'll be in touch", Jack smiled.
Speaking of legends, they don't come any more legendary than this guy. Do you know who he is?
Have you ever read "The Absolute Sound"?
This is Harry Pearson. He is the best audio writer on earth by many standards. He has an absolute knack of making you want to buy whatever he's writing about.
Darby has been a subscriber since 1968 when he discovered The Absolute Sound in the high end audio shop he worked in part-time in high school.
Seeing Harry out at an audio show is as rare as zero calorie Big Mac's. James and Linda ended up spending quite a bit of time with the legend
and we have to say it was like they were old friends. Harry is hilarious and charming to an extreme. He kept us in stitches.
He saw the Darby's sitting in the lobby later that day and came over to chat some more. Suddenly he told us he didn't feel well....kind of dizzy.
Linda rushed to get him some water. He told us he had just had some dentistry work done and couldn't eat solid food and was advised not to come to the show. He was clearly a little dehydrated - not unusual in the dry and mile-high altitude of Denver. The Darby's walked him to the elevator and up to his room, making sure he was alright. The next day he told them the presentation he made the night before had been even better that his first one and thanked them profusely for the care and help.
Yes, Harry Pearson is legend, both for his trailblazing efforts in the audio press and also for some of his exploits. There are as many Harry Pearson stories floating around as lawyer jokes.
But he was a gentleman and a nice guy in Denver.
Later the Darby's also ran into John Atkinson from the other US print mag Stereophile.
They didn't want to comment on that encounter....
Esoteric had surprisingly good sound through a myriad of digital components and their own Esoteric speakers.
Even more surpisingly, their source for playing back ultra-high resolution music files was not desktop or even laptop computer.
It was a small generic netbook.
Johnnie Bergmann displays his Stereomojo award for "2009 Turntable of the Year"
for the remarkable air bearing and air suspended arm Sindre (pictured). Stereomojo did the first review of the new table.
Chatting with Jonathan Valin of Stereophile, Darby asked him if he had heard anything that really impressed him, to which
Valin replied, "Did you see that new table with air bearing and the air tracking linear arm?"
"You mean the Bergmann?", James replied.
"Yes! That's it."
Well..um...it's our Turntable of the Year, Jonathan...."
"You mean you've already reviewed it?!!"
These speakers are from Acoustic Technologies, a single driver model with a 3-inch titanium cone.
Since there's only one driver, there's no crossover. Apparently there's not much internal bracing or resonance control because the cabinet vibrated quite a bit
even a relatively low volume. The designer explained it was part of his intent, to allow it to resonate "like a bassoon".
Though these speakers are only $2,495/pair, and a reminder that sound quality at audio shows is a very tenuous thing,
if we had to choose the worst sound we heard, it would be this room. It's very possible that in another room, these might well sound better.
Hegel is a Norwegian company whose products have received rave reviews all over the world, but have not be represented in the US.
Ben Gosvig, formerly of Dali speakers, has come to the rescue. And we have, too.
After talking to Ben and telling him how we approach our reviews honestly and thoroughly, and how most of our reviews are world's or at least North American firsts,
Ben said, "Why don't I just ship you all three of these Hegel products directly from the show?"
Ben is a man of his word; we have already received shipping confirmation for all three Hegel's you see above.
On the top is the H200 integrated amp with 2x200W into 8 ohms, 2x350W into 4 ohms.
It uses Hegel's patented Sound Engine technology which tries to eliminate "transitor sound"
The little black box is the brand new HD10 outboard DAC which has never been reviewed.
The CDP4A CD player on the bottom has true balanced multilevel 24 bit 352 kHz DACs with synchronous upsampling.
it is also using the completely new and very precise HEGEL SuperClock 2 with an extremely low jitter level.
It has already won two awards in France and a design award in Norway.
Playing through Dali speakers, the music did not sound transitory, very dynamic, clean and powerful.
We're looking forward to reporting on these exciting products for you.
C.C. Poon's Monarchy audio is always much admired here at Stereomojo because he makes excellent products at very good prices.
Our Mike Peshkin loves his Monarchy monoblocks.
We also like the tiny Lenehan speakers. Poon was playing a new remastered version of Brubeck's "Time Out"
and it was crazy good through this system. Huge sound through small speakers is no longer surprising, in fact it's expected. But these were something special
and nvestigating the Lenehand website revelws a very interesting philosophy and some industry dirty little secrets.
We're going to try hard to get a review sample of these $2,400 ML1's.
Poon was also showing his NM24 tube DAC with a show special $980 price. (top center)
This is an interior shot of the new SE100 Delux Mk2 monoblocks.
The regular price of $1,179 EACH is pretty goodand the same price as 15 years ago when the basic model was introduced,
but Poon was running a show special of $1,179 per PAIR!
Ever hear of Fritz speakers? Well here they are. Fritz sells these Carbon 7's direct for $1,650/pr direct.
They feature a 7" carbon fiber/paper composite, bass reflex with a rear port and a 1.1" soft dome tweeter.
The crossover has no capacitors or resitorsfor the tweeters and 1 small inductor on the midbass driver.
Electronics are by KORATO. In the back is the Anniversary Amp (10 years), a dual mono design with 180 wpc that sells for $4,600.
Their KVP 10 preamp is a dual chassis tube model using a ECC82 and 12AU7 in the line section with 5 inputs. There's an optional tube phono section as well.
The separate power supply uses two ECL 82's for regulation. It uses no feedback and goes for a nice $2,095.