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Feature
At left: the Aurum triamped system.
Below left: the Clearaudio Superbe
turntable. Below right: Braun’s bornagain
Quad ESL-57 speaker.
“I the sweet coloured sound I
like music to be fast, true
and direct,” said Gerry, a
long time UHF reader, “not
hear sometimes”. He then added, almost
apologetically, “Well, it’s a matter of
taste.”
And, frankly, when you hear such differences
of sound from room to room, you
would be tempted to agree that it must be
a matter of taste. Well, is it ? The story
of high fidelity is a story of compromises
to achieve a semblance of live music and
some of us would
r a t h e r
28 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
by
Albert
Simon
Le Festival 2003
compromise on certain aspects more
than on others. If anything that’s a
matter of taste. Or preference, let’s say.
Merlin speakers were in the land of
vinyl this year, with a DPS turntable, a
Schroeder arm and an Allaerts cartridge,
and we all sat listening to a very lively
and energetic J.R. Montrose on sax, an
original Blue Note,late 50’s mono recording
(yes, mono), reissued by Classics a few
months ago. What incredible presence,
energy and rhythm. Every piece of gear
was resting proudly on Stillpoints
too. I also heard
the Antal Dorati version of
Stravinsky’s Firebird, a
Mercury Living presence
original LP
that sent ripples
through audiophiles
socks.
A different,
much quieter, atmosphere
altogether with
the music of the Marc Vallée
Trio on Hamadryade, one of the latest
Fidelio label SuperAudio recordings,
played through StudioLab Reference
Revelation speakers. But the real revelation
for me was how wonderfully the
much smaller StudioLab Reference One
speakers recreated the voice and music
of Bob Walsh (Live 1998) with the help
of an Audio Aero player and amplifier.
The rich piano sound of Ivo Pogorelich
playing Mozart came out of Italian-made
Superpavarotti Version 2 speakers, made
by a company called (what else) Opera.
It allowed me to appreciate the qualities
of Unison Research Class A electronics
and hybrid CD player.
Next door I was treated to the open
and powerful sound of Magellan speakers,
hovering at an impressive height of
7 feet, bringing the wry humour of Roger
Waters (It’s a Miracle) through Cairn Fog
2 (24 bit/192 kHz) CD player and Cairn
amplifiers.
The music of Brahms (Symphony
No. 2, Carlos Kleiber conducting) was
in stark contrast to that, as interpreted by
a Copland player and integrated hybrid
amplifier through the Reference 3A MM
De Capo-i speakers on Phenolic stands.
And, next, premiering in Montreal, the
V6 line stage and the single-endedtriode
V5 phono stage from Foundation
Research were matched to Orpheus 3
monoblocks to play Lyle Lovett and his
large band. The source? The Wilson
Benesch Circle turntable with 0.5 arm
and Benz H 2
O cartridge. The voice?