The Audiopax family this year featured
(left to righ)t: Svein Osen (owner of Audiostone and
designer of the incredibly attractive Pythagoras turntable),
Per Bendiksen (International Sales Manager of Audiopax),
Silvio Pereira (one of the owners of Audiopax), Serguei
Timachev (Stealth Audio) and Eduardo de Lima (president and
designer of Audiopax).
The sound in the Audiopax room totally
caught me off guard and was so much better than the
excellent sound heard at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year.
The Audiopax Maggiore M100 SE mono amplifiers ($100k)
debuted at this year's show and could very well be
responsible for the incredible amounts of delicacy, decay
and dynamics heard in this setup (see my short video
here). Note from the photos here, the Arpeggione
loudspeakers were really out into the room. This presented a
sense of realistic space, depth and three-dimensionality
that was truly hypnotic. Congrats to the folks who did the
setup. I so enjoyed the sound of this room, I plan to visit
the Audiopax facility located in Rio de Janeiro this fall.
Stay tuned.
The 92 dB/8 Ohm efficient Audiopax
Arpeggione loudspeaker. Remarkably ordinary to look at but
trust me, there's nothing ordinary about the sound of this
most musical transducer. Among the Best Sounds at this
year's show.
High End 2011 sponsor
A view of the Arpeggione's rather
uniquely sloped rear.
This from the Audiopax website
regarding Timbre Lock: Timbre LockŪ is the world’s first
optimally adjustable amplifier/speaker interface. The
interaction between amplifiers and loudspeakers has long
been recognized as being of paramount importance. Very
little has been actually done to study this interaction.
After years of designing custom music systems that included
the design of mostly single-ended amplifiers and carefully
matched speakers, AUDIOPAX has acquired a deep understanding
of this subject. More importantly, we also introduced and
implemented several practical ideas. Timbre LockŪ will give
you the means to adjust your sound to achieve a level of
refinement that is the essence of very well matched systems.
Timbre LockŪ gives you the power of “dialing in” the
amplifier behavior that will be best for the system, not
just for the amplifier.
The Audiostone Pythagoras turntable
featuring the Thales Tonearm.
This from Key Kim's rundown on this
outstanding setup (no sense in repeating): Audiopax
introduced their Maggiore electronics
line which exemplified a cost is-no-object approach. Their
manufacturing and technical support has moved to Switzerland
for better craftsmanship and production. Only the
highest-quality tubes, connectors, and parts are used. The
Maggiore M100 monoblock amplifier (€60k) - the “Gentle
Giant,” - is definitely a cost is-no-object design. The ATMA,
is an “Asymmetrical Topology of Multiple Amplifiers.” To
produce a high power amplifier, the Maggiore M100 uses six
asymmetrical single-ended amplifiers connected only at the
loudspeaker’s output. The Maggiore M100 utilizes a
revolutionary topology to become the world’s first Class A1
single-ended tube amplifier with over 100 watts of power per
channel. Actually, there are 100 watts of power with KT-88
tubes or 130 watts per channel with KT-120 tubes. The P100
Maggiore preamp (€22k) with volume control was used. The
Arpeggione (€38k) three- way full range loudspeakers sounded
stunning using the Audio Aero LaSource SACD player and the
superbly designed and crafted Audiostone Pythagoras (€100k)
turntable (integrated with the Apeiron reference rack) made
out of Scandinavian granite with a Micha Huber Thales
tonearm.
A study in detail: Stealth Audio Dream
series cables used in the Audiopax room.
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