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It’s been a
number of years since I attended the last high-end audio
show in New York City, so I was eager to make my way to
midtown Manhattan for AXPONA NYC (Audio Expo North America).
The show was held for two days (June 24-25, 2011) at the
Affinia Hotel near Penn Station. I knew I was in Kansas, eh
I mean AXPONA, when I encountered several audiophile friends
in the hotel lobby.
The first room
I entered was the Audio Power Labs and Wharfedale room. As I
walked around the black curtains to enter the room, I saw
two behemoth monoblock amplifiers glowing like beacons in
the night. Man, they were impressive looking.
I spoke to
Peeya Iwagoshi, VP of Audio Power Labs, who told me the
amplifier uses 833 transmitter tubes and puts out 200 watts
rms @ 8 ohms. Not only that, but the amp is auto biasing.
Whew, what a relief! I would hate to fiddle with those
things. The monoblocks cost a tidy sum of $175,000 for the
pair. They were partnered with the Wharfedale Neo Airedale
3-way speakers ($25,000 pr), Audio Research Ref 5
preamplifier (approx. $13,000), Musical Fidelity M6 CD
player (approx. $2,500), Merrill/Williams turntable (approx.
$9,000) and various Harmonic Technology cables. I don’t
think the system was dialed in on the first day I visited,
but sounded much, much better the second day when I returned
for a listen. After I heard a few songs, John Marks of
Stereophile came in with violinist Arturo Delmoni to do a
final sound check before Mr. Delmoni was to perform live
later in the room. Mr. Delmoni’s violin playing was
accompanied by a CD recording of a organ, played through the
Musical Fidelity M6 CD player. The melding of live and
recorded sounds blended very well, and I couldn’t tell if it
was live or Memorex! |
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Unison Research products have not been
sold in the United States for about two years. The Italian
company is planning to make its U.S. return soon and is
looking for a dealership network. At the show, they were
showcasing the S6 class A integrated amplifier, in a
single-ended parallel design utilizing EL34 output tubes and
producing 30 watts (approx. $5,000), along with their CDE CD
player, a hybrid design (4 12AX7 tubes) at a cost of $3,900.
The S6 integrated was driving the Opera Grand Callas
speakers ($10,000). Cardas Audio chose this show to debut
their new Clear cable line by providing wiring for the
system.
I was awed by the beautiful audio
products in the MBL room. Each piece was in a gloss white
finish, similar to the paint quality of a luxury automobile,
say a Mercedes Benz or a BMW. While each piece at the show
can be purchase separately, the potential customer may also
buy everything as a combo system. In fact, the MBL catalogue
has combo systems at different price points. The system at
the show is Combination D in their catalogue and cost is
$259,700 for the whole shebang. For anyone who wishes to
purchase the components individually, the prices are as
follows: 6010D preamplifier ($26,500), 9011 monoblock power
amps ($106,000 pair), 1621A CD transport ($28,000), 1611F 24
bit/96/192 khz D/A converter ($28,700) and 101E MII
Omnidirectional loudspeakers ($70,500 pair). I heard some
Pink Floyd selections and the bass overloaded the smallish
room, but otherwise the sound was very open, airy and
dynamic.
What a relief to listen to music at
sane volume levels. In some rooms, the volume was so loud my
ears were ringing when I left, but not in the Eggleston
Works/Rogue Audio room. Not only was the volume sane, but
the general sound was excellent. The combination of
equipment probably had something to do with that: Rogue
Audio Hera II preamplifier ($7,995), Rogue Apollo monoblock
amplifiers ($10,995 pair), Meitner MA1 DAC ($6,750) and
Eggleston WorksAndra III loudspeakers ($25,000 pair).
I visited the High End Palace room, a
Miami, Florida high-end dealer headed by Mr. Larry Diaz
(photo right), who
debut the Mark Neumann Coliseum XLS loudspeaker at the show.
Disguised like a conventional speaker, it is actually an
open baffle design, utilizing six drivers in each enclosure
($32,000 pair). Since the Coliseum XLS does not have a
crossover, a Concierto X1 SE active crossover ($18,800)
performed that function. Power was supplied by the BAT VK
6200 stereo amplifier, while a TACT 2.2 XP ($6,800) served
as the preamp. Source material was handled by the superb
Stahl-Tek Vekian CD transport ($30,000) and D/A converter
($25,000) combo. Some jazz was playing which sounded very
open and clean, though the bass was overloading the smallish
room at times.
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