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Feature<br />
large speakers were driven by McIntosh<br />
tube amplifiers that had little difficulty<br />
filling <strong>the</strong> big room with music of gratifying<br />
clarity.<br />
Not far away, ano<strong>the</strong>r amplifier was<br />
turning out impressive sound, <strong>the</strong> new<br />
Hovland Radia. This 150 watt/channel<br />
amp is solid state, unlike <strong>the</strong> very good<br />
tube preamp. Of course it had great<br />
stuff both upstream and downstream: a<br />
ClearAudio turntable and <strong>the</strong> wonderful<br />
Acapella Violin speaker, with its astonishing<br />
ionic tweeter.<br />
I saw two “universal” players. One was<br />
<strong>the</strong> Lexicon RT-10 (C$5000), which was<br />
being used for music videos at <strong>the</strong> ProAc<br />
room. Much more expensive, at about<br />
C$16K, was <strong>the</strong> Linn Unidisk, which I<br />
had heard in Vegas. It was actually being<br />
used to do comparisons among formats.<br />
On Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain, <strong>the</strong><br />
sound from SACD was quite superior<br />
to that of <strong>the</strong> Red<br />
Book CD.<br />
The most unusual room was<br />
that of Aurum, a small company<br />
from Newfoundland. The<br />
Aurum system, which is shown<br />
on <strong>the</strong> next page, is triamplified,<br />
and comes with its own amplifiers,<br />
which contain <strong>the</strong> appropriate<br />
crossovers. Because <strong>the</strong><br />
speakers are so efficient (99 dB),<br />
<strong>the</strong> tweeter and midrange are driven<br />
by small single-ended tube amplifiers.<br />
A more powerful solid state amplifier<br />
handles <strong>the</strong> woofer. The cost for <strong>the</strong><br />
complete system will be somewhere<br />
between C$20K and $30K. The Aurum<br />
is not yet fully developed, and seems to<br />
suffer from a crossover phase problem,<br />
but <strong>the</strong> clean sound made me hope that<br />
it will actually come to market. Aurum<br />
seems to be on to something.<br />
Toronto’s Fab Audio was showing <strong>the</strong><br />
production <strong>version</strong> of its large speakers.<br />
And this time <strong>the</strong>re was an add-on:<br />
MuRata supertweeters, which don’t go<br />
to work until <strong>the</strong> sound hits 18 kHz.<br />
As always <strong>the</strong>re were lots of video<br />
demos, though we thought <strong>the</strong>re seemed<br />
to be fewer than usual. Easily <strong>the</strong> most<br />
unusual was in <strong>the</strong> Niro room (<strong>the</strong> company<br />
was set up by Niro Nakamichi, also<br />
<strong>the</strong> founder of…). It was demonstrating<br />
surround sound with just two speakers,<br />
but not <strong>the</strong> way you think. There was<br />
just one speaker at <strong>the</strong> front, and a<br />
second one at <strong>the</strong> rear. The setup did<br />
seem to work, as nearly as I could tell<br />
despite <strong>the</strong> huge crowds <strong>the</strong> demo was<br />
drawing every time I went by.<br />
More conventional but first rate was<br />
a home <strong>the</strong>atre setup using Parasound<br />
electronics and player, and a large<br />
number of JMLab speakers. Madonna’s<br />
Drowned World Tour had much of <strong>the</strong><br />
impact and excitement of a live rock<br />
concert.<br />
Of course I put sound (and image)<br />
above <strong>the</strong> look, but I enjoy components<br />
that look good as well as sounding good.<br />
I’d award top prize for design to Chord,<br />
whose rack components look like nothing<br />
I’ve ever seen. The one at lower right<br />
is a phono stage, believe it or not. Like<br />
<strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r components of <strong>the</strong> line, it is<br />
tilted forward so that you can see <strong>the</strong><br />
top…which includes a magnifying porthole<br />
atop <strong>the</strong> circuitry. It’s an intriguing<br />
mix of geek chic and elegance. Oh, and<br />
it sounds good too.<br />
Also gorgeous are<br />
<strong>the</strong> Cyrus components,<br />
shown at left.<br />
Cyrus was once<br />
part of Mission,<br />
but is now independent.<br />
Cyrus was also<br />
showing its Icon<br />
speaker, which looks<br />
like an electrostatic<br />
but actually uses an<br />
NXT flat panel. It<br />
was hard to judge<br />
its sound from <strong>the</strong><br />
home <strong>the</strong>atre demo<br />
that was running,<br />
but <strong>the</strong> design is<br />
most interesting.<br />
Linar was back<br />
at <strong>the</strong> Festival for<br />
<strong>the</strong> first time in<br />
several years, with<br />
redesigned amplifiers<br />
and preamplifier.<br />
I didn’t run across<br />
Victor Sima, founder of Linar and also<br />
of Simaudio.<br />
Speaking of Simaudio, its excellent<br />
room was using a pair of W-6<br />
monoblocks, each about <strong>the</strong> size of a W-3<br />
stereo amp. They put out 425 watts each,<br />
and it’s rare to hear such powerful amps<br />
sound this good.<br />
Among o<strong>the</strong>r gems: <strong>the</strong> huge Rogue<br />
Zeus tube amplifier (225 watts a side)<br />
making beautiful music along with<br />
Meadowlark Blue Heron speakers…and<br />
<strong>the</strong> very transparent (and extra efficient)<br />
LammPipe speakers driven effortlessly<br />
by Tenor 15WE monoblocks.<br />
For more show coverage, see our site<br />
(www.uhfmag.com), where you’ll see a<br />
link for our daily on-line reports. And<br />
turn <strong>the</strong> page for Albert Simon’s own<br />
impressions of <strong>the</strong> show.<br />
ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY <strong>Magazine</strong> 27