Clement Perry

My new reference DALI Megalines ($50K) sounded ever so elegant and easy being driven by an all-McIntosh assault. I'm told the electronics eclipsed $100K in total. Under these economic conditions they BETTER sound good. In an attempt to explain why I qualify these seven-foot seven-inch monsters as my new reference (photo right: CP's listening room) if you're ever in the neighborhood you should offer to stop over to hear them paired to the $130K line of Behold electronics. And YES they too sound good. Very good!

Who Might You Be?

Status Acoustics by way of RBH released this very large and different looking Wasatch monitor (still don't know if I find it attractive in looks though its build quality is superb). Boasting a three-way sealed/vented design with a 93.5 dB sensitivity and employing five 10" Aluminum woofers, Six 6 1/2" Beryllium mid-bass drivers, Seven 1.1" Fabric Dome tweeters (six front and one rear firing) makes this a super heavyweight transducer. Despite its 385 lb curb weight, I found the sound light, yet airy with full harmonic structure and overall enchanting. 

Fanfare International put on one heck of a demo at T.H.E. Show. Showing atop is the Italian designed Pear Evolution 402 4-way dynamic loudspeaker ($19,900). Below is the Bluenote Stibbert Mk II CD player punctuated with a new set of isolation feet courtesy of Fanfare's Victor Goldstein (you won't buy one dressed this good I afraid to say).  Sound Fusion supplied the beautiful rack space supporting the ever-impressive German ASR Emitter I Exclusive amplifier ($15,500). All cabling and AC cords were courtesy of Kubala-Sosna. What most impressed me with respect to this room was the power and control the ASR granted to the Pearl Evolution 402s. Here's an amplifier built so smartly that it actually fit in the Sound Fusion rack without ever once feeling claustrophobic. In a million years, I would have never believed a subwoofer was not employed. Yet there were none on the premises. I doubt there was better bass coming from other rooms employing dedicated subs!  The ASR does come with a separate power supply and on paper we all know what power and dynamic reserves this can provide. Well, I got the picture after a couple of tracks. A very full and dynamic sounding setup with great looks to match.

Streamline personified is what you get once transfixed on Swiss made Orpheus Electronics which featured their tranport/dac duo ($17K), the Orpheus M 150-watt mono amplifiers ($9300) and Orpheus Two preamplifier ($6500) drove the Lumen White White Light ($60k) with incredible ease considering how invisible these electronics are. Always a fan of the Lumen White, I actually had the opportunity some years back to review the entire Orpheus line before differences between the company and its US distributors forced me to suspend my lovely sessions and return the items back to sender. So needless to say, there was a sense of relief to see the entire lineup back, better than ever.  

Ayon/Lumen White put another show-stopper together with the Lumen White Silver Flame ($28k) loudspeaker putting on a magnificent show compliments of some serious vinyl playback that featured the Blue Pearl Audio JEM 'table ($80k) being driven by those wonderful Ayon  52B mono amps ($29k). The super attractive Acoustic Dreams amp and equipment rack are compliments of Bruce Fetherling: designer of the Acoustic Dreams rack and US distributor of Lumen While/Ayon/Blue Pearl Audio (left photo on right shown smiling with Gerhardt Hirt,  owner of Living Sound, Austrian distributor for Lumen White).

Ayon wanted so badly to demonstrate the new Spheris preamplifier (left, price TBA) but due to some weird electrical fluctuations things didn't go as planned. Just from the looks of its innards tells a story in an of itself. (Our own Lew Lanese who uses the 52Bs as his reference may be in for a treat when he gets the Spheris in for review. Stay tuned). This of course did not faze the sound of this setup considering the fabulous Messenger Ref tube preamp ($16k) did provide a sonic synergy that could not be denied. The room sounded creamy smooth with all the details one could vouch for. I was not surprised at all. When Ayon/Lumen White debuted back in 2000 or thereabouts, I gave them best sound at show over the very impressive sounding Halcro setup that also debuted for the first time. Hey, you know the old motto, If It Works...Don't Fix It!

       Got to love the body language Jeff Smith of Silver Smith offers in this shot.

The awesome Adrenaline Series Monopole - 75 loudspeakers ($55k) strutted their stuff here at T.H.E. Show flanked by their dual 12" under-hung woofers. Edge Electronics Steve Norber is seen operating their new G CD player ($4500) Also shown is the Edge ML12.1 mono amps (laser biased at ($18,500), and the G2 battery powered preamp ($4500). Again the sound was big, huge and wide. But moreover it was smooth and easy to listen to, something that isn't as easy as it seems.

                                 Stay tuned for another page or two!

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