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CES 2007
Page 2
Quad
The Quad room sounded very impressive. It was
open, transparent and the accurately produced
midrange and upper frequencies were amazing.
Listening to vocals gave me a sense of realism
not frequently found in dynamic loudspeakers,
or for that matter, in any speakers. The new
reference Quad ESL-2905 ($11,500) full-range
electrostatic loudspeakers were powered by a
Model II-eighty ($10K) along with the
QC-twenty four preamplifier and a Model 99
CD-P CD player ($1,350).
PrimaLuna
The PrimaLuna lineup of affordable high-end
products was surprisingly good and considering
the cost, was outstanding. The set up featured
their new Dialogue Two integrated amplifier
($2,499). Its Triode/Ultralinear switching
allows you to switch between triode operation
and ultralinear on the fly (38 wpc in
ultralinear, 21 wpc triode). It powered the
Sonus Faber Amati Anniversario loudspeakers
extremely well, and their newly designed
Prologue Eight CD player ($2,000-2,500),
features the world’s first tube-based data
clocking device and is a true dual-mono
design, right down to the dual vacuum tube
rectification which is another first in a CD
player. Finally, PrimaLuna’s affordability is
always welcome in high-end Audio product!
Acoustic System International/Karan Acoustics/
AMR/Virtual Dynamics
Darren Censullo
of the Avatar Acoustics put together two
fabulous systems in a large room. Both systems
used the same digital source, the AMR CD-77.
The larger of the two systems featured
Acoustic System’s beautifully finished
loudspeaker, the Tango ($13,500 with silk dome
tweeter and $19,500 with diamond tweeter),
which was making its American debut. It uses
Franck Tchang’s revolutionary three stage
tension/pressure conversion technology.
According to Franck, the advantage of this
technology is that it avoids using any kind of
damping techniques (including air flow)
because damping techniques will cause some
loss of harmonics and frequency roll off. The
tension/pressure conversion technique offers a
well controlled enclosure. The energy is
completely recycled and cancels the crossover
relay time problem. Therefore there is no
compression, or stress, and the system gives
listeners maximum musical listening enjoyment.
Simply put it was music to my ears. The sound
was natural and non-fatiguing, yet detailed
and transparent. The mighty Karan Acoustic
KAM1200 reference monoblock amplifier (1,200
Watts of pure Class-A at $44K) drove the Tango
effortlessly through the stratosphere and the
AMR CD-77 (review sample in the works), an up
and coming reference quality CD player is
built like the Sherman tank. It features a
proprietary top-loading transport mechanism
and at its heart, the “King of the Multibit”
the Phillips TDA1541A chipset. The cabling was
Virtual Dynamics’ new Genesis 2.0 and all
components were set up on Acoustic System’s
component racks. Lastly, the room was tuned by
Franck Tchang the magician with his fabulous
resonators. The overall effect of Mr. Tchang’s
magic was remarkable.
The second system consisted of all AMR
components including the prototype LS 77-2
loudspeakers. The AMR system was simple yet
incredible. The principal designer Thorsten
Loesch is known as a brilliant designer. His
new company Abbingdon Music Research (AMR)
featured their CD-77 and AM-77 Dual-Mono
Amplifier. The superb and beautifully crafted
prototype LS-77 two-way monitor loudspeaker
features an aluminum cabinet and a clever
adjustable crossover (all these components
cost $8,500 each). The AM-77 Dual-Mono
Amplifier is actually an integrated amplifier
(180 watts of pure Class-A). It offers pure,
stable power with the ability to drive even
the most difficult loudspeakers with ease and
precision. The zero negative feedback, pure
Class-A valve stage in the preamplifier stage
along with the power amplifier sections and a,
patent-pending, “Class X: Jikoda circuit”
performed extremely well. It works in
real-time, simultaneously detecting and
canceling unwanted artifacts in the audio
signal so that none pass through to effect the
playback of music. Well, enough of the tech
talk. The important question is how did it
sound? Simply put, the AMR sounded wonderful.
It was open and transparent yet musical. All
AMR’s are built impeccably, using the finest
and best- sounding parts available.
Unfortunately, this room was located in the
Venetian convention center on the second floor
and the room wasn’t an ideal venue to obtain
good sound. The walls weren’t solid walls and
sound was bleeding in from other rooms making
it hard to listen accurately. In addition, the
room was always crowded. In spite of these
problems, Darren was able to present a sound
that was outstanding.
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