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Since life puts
great demands on my time I will start my
impressions of HighEnd 2005 with what I
perceived as personal highlights, showstoppers or
whatever you want to call them. These are
standout rooms and experiences that really
makes trekking around shows like this for four
days worth all the time and effort (sore feet
included).
 It
just tickles me pink how Ralf Ballmann and his
team manages to incorporate their experience
in hard-core industrial developments, like the
network analysis equipment which form the core
of their original business, into audiophile
equipment in such a way as to produce some the
most interesting and superb sound systems I
can think of.
Already last year I was bubbling over and this
year there are more things to talk about.
Like quite a few other exhibitors they were
fighting the acoustics of the cabins set up on
the ground floor of the exhibition. While
passing them several times in the first couple
of days I was always on the way to somewhere
or they were in the middle of talking to other
people. That turned out to be my good luck. By
the time I got around to them, the cabin (you
can’t really call it a room) had been tuned in
various ways and sounded pretty good.
All of the things we spoke about last year are
still true and as exiting as ever. Two very
interesting new products are available now
though. One fits in as an integral part of the
‘behold’ chain i.e. it cannot exist outside
it. The other could be a very interesting new
part for someone adventurous, who still loves
vinyl.
 Let’s
start with the CD player. It is a CD drive
(and nothing but a CD drive) mounted in a CNC-routed
17 Kg block of Aluminium. Talk about mass and
stability. The space to mount the drive has
been routed out and a faceplate and sides are
added. All processing and control is done on
the CDP768 controller, which resides in the
APU768 control unit. This extremely
conveniently gets rid off all the compromises
associated with the SP/DIF interface normally
used between a drive and whatever device is
processing its signals. It should be possible
to get jitter really down and you can use the
very secure transport build into the behold
system with its low impedance professional
interface, since the CDP768 not only controls
the CD drive but also converts the standard
PCM 44.1 kHz/16bit to the behold 768 kHz/24
bit format. Who says CD is dead?
The other new product is really exiting for
vinyl enthusiasts. It is the PDS192 digital
riaa correction unit. Well actually it does
digital domain phono equalizing, turntable
motor control and power and acts as a PC
interface if you would like to record your
LP’s unto your home music server and I suppose
it does the kitchen sink as well.
Just take a look inside this beauty, which
Ralf Ballmann shows us with justified pride.
Before you scream “Heresy” I would advice you
to take a closer look and most importantly a
listen. I did and boy did it sound good. I
certainly could not find any obvious ‘digital’
nastiness at all while listening for much too
short a time.
The signal obviously enters as a normal
analogue phono signal, which can be amplified,
from 0 to 24 dB in 6 dB steps. This takes care
of the major differences in level between
moving magnet and the lower output moving coil
designs. Immediately after the
pre-amplification follows a 192 Khz/24 bit A/D
conversion. A number of different equalizing
curves are available from the front panel but
you can create new ones yourself on a PC,
which you can connect via USB. You can also
bypass the phono equalizer leaving just the
A/D converter. I know for sure that quite a
few analogue addicts will cringe at this. They
shouldn’t. Precise riaa correction is
something very difficult to achieve, which is
probably at least one reason why so many phono-stages
sound so different.
Outputs include analogue out, digital out via
sp/dif at a maximum of 192/96/48 kHz / 24 bits
on coaxial as well as Toslink. And 48 kHz / 16
bit via USB. (I can’t help wishing they had
gone straight for USB2 instead of the older
USB1).
But another really interesting aspect is the
motor section of the PDS192. A lot of
turntable owners have invested a substantial
sum in a power supply, perhaps with extensive
filtering for their turntable motors. The
PDS192 contains a high precision drive signal
for synchronous motors with just about all the
features you could dream of. Slow start,
multiple voltages, extensive speed control for
3 individual speeds and I could go on. I
actually hope I get a chance to do so at
another time.
All in all the proof of the puddin’ was in the
listening. And it was good. We listened to
vinyl via MCA768 interface and via the PDS192.
We listened to CDs on the CD-Player and I
actually think the lovely Ascendo speakers
sounded better than in the Ascendo room. Small
groups, female vocals, blues, Elvis singing
‘Fever,’ Dean Peer playing ‘Ucross’ and Sergio
Mendes’ Brasiliero with a hundred chaps
banging the drums was all played with ease and
poise. Wow!
ATE Transar shown by Rossner & Sohn
 Actually
I should ask forgiveness for not paying enough
attention to the quite fantastic turntable
exhibited by Rossner & Sohn (the last being
German for, you guessed it, Son). It seems
really interesting and if I get a chance I
will certainly do penance and make up for it
at another occasion.
One reason I didn’t was that, after having
been intrigued by the add in the exhibition
catalogue, I just had to listen to these
electrostatics which promised the ability to
hit over 120 dBs. Now, don’t misunderstand me.
I don’t normally make it a habit to listen
music at those kinds of levels. But if you
want a truly realistic portrayal of a big
orchestra you do need awesome dynamics and a
substantial maximum level, even if it isn’t
sustained for very long. So I was really
curious.
The actual demo was run by Max Schlundt who is
a dealer from Berlin and what a demo that was.
A suitable mix of wonderful music, real
information about the system and a liberal
sprinkling of anecdotes relating to these
fantastic (and DO NOT take this lightly)
speakers and the people who have bought them.
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