Welcome

Although their designer Hanz Deutsch has spent the past ten years making pianos, he’s spent the past forty building loudspeakers. As trained opera singer and sound engineer, Brodmann brings the philosophies of instrument design to his loudspeakers. The speakers had a lively quality rich in harmonics. As the bow bounced off the strings of a violin, the Brodmanns recreated the reverberations as if next to the violin’s chamber. At the show, the company displayed their Jospeh Brodmann Concert Series, the Vienna Class Series  and Festival Series , as pictured below from right to left.

Audeze is a relatively young American company that specializes in planar-magnetic headphones and whose products have taken the high-end headphone universe by storm. The LCD3 is Audeze’s flagship model and it has become a widely used reference for many audio journalists (the author included).

Conclusion

There are so many reasons to recommend this amplifier: fabulous sonics, world-class build-quality, a manufacturer that seems to really care about what it is doing, how it is doing it, and has its customers’ best interests at heart, and yes, overall coolness. More?

EATs lovely CEO Jozefina, is seen here sitting proudly with her 2 new creations, the NEW E-glo Phono Stage and NEW E-go 12" Reference Tonearm created exclusively for them by Graham, based on their famous Phantom II Supreme tonearm.. These 2 new items match up with their phenomenal EAT Forte and Forte-S turntables to help bring you towards the ultimate vinyl expression.

          Both the Leto Preamp and the Andros Phonostage receive "2013 Editor's Choice Awards" 

Norwegian Manufacturer Electrocompaniet had two new digital products this year. The first is the ECD 2 Reference DAC  and available now. It features balanced and unbalanced outputs, 24/192 SPDIF Coax and new this year, USB. The ECD 2 upsamples and uses 24/192 processing throughout. 

At this year's CES, Sumiko's John-Paul Lizars introduced me to REL Acoustics’ new R528 SE sub-bass system.

He described it as an "ultra-high output version of the R528" but also as a more compact version of the company's flagship Gibraltar 1 subwoofer.

The R528 SE is half the weight (58 lbs instead of 108 lbs), 43% of the volume, and 61% of the cost of the G1 

While the larger G1 has a 600W class-AB amplifier, the R528 SE has a 500W class-D amplifier.

"When I consider the overall sound from any small speaker I’ve auditioned, the Be-718 is the best that I’ve heard. It’s exceedingly well balanced, surprisingly neutral, and extremely transparent. It also has the best bass extension I've heard short of a big floorstanding speaker. The only caveats are that you’ll need a sufficiently powerful amplifier and that you’ll have to give the Be-718 room to breathe, given its generous bass.

Steve Guttenberg of TAS - The Absolute Sound reviews the Davone Mojo life style / book shelf speakers and is amazed at their  performance.

It is a pleasure to introduce the NEW "NW-T”  Music Network-Transport from Ayon Audio which caused quite a sensation because it is the first Music Network Transport which is using a tube rectifier (6Z4)  in its power supply  and for the digital signal using a 6H14 high frequency radar tube for its SPDIF and AES/EBU digital output (Tube buffered digital output).

Introducing the NEW Electrocompaniet PI-2D Integrated amplifier with a built-in 24/192 DAC with USB etc.

The Zesto Andros PS1 continues to maintain high excitement among audiophiles at hifi shows around the world since its introduction last year, remaining a topic of discussion on any number of audio forums, with nary a complaint – no small feat in today’s interconnected world.  Designer George Counnas and his wife Carolyn have been buried filling orders on the Andros PS1, George has managed to find the time to develop a linestage as well, the Leto. 

The ECI 6DS is an all-in-one music-system that streams music from your network, wired or wireless (WiFi).  Blu-ray players, CD players and even satellite television tuners can also be connected and everything is controlled by the simple to use and beautiful remote control.

Bel Canto has three new asynchronous USB link converters that consist of the entry-level mLink, mid-level uLink and top-of-the-line REFLink 

Moving over now to rooms that was smaller by comparison to the larger suites I visited Peder Beckman the chief operating officer for Electrocompaniet. Peder works out of Oakland California but the factory and main office are in Stavanger Norway.

Electrocompaniet had its own dedicated room plus another adjacent room shared by Brodmann Acoustics.

Dealer Audio Image set up a system so ambitious and involved that we were surprised they weren't local to Southern California, located instead to the north in Oakland.

Scaena Spiritus 3.6 line-source speakers along with a Trifecta subwoofer system (US$130,000) were front and center.

VAC Statement 450 monoblocks (US$78,000/pair)
Signature Mk2a preamp (US$19,500) were the main electronics,

For analog playback via the again-impressive

We have been enjoying some time out visting family in Singapore before the fun begins once we take over Graham St at the end of this month, while here I have been catching up with other audio assosciates and also attended the MOD Audio show.

It was encouraging to see some of our brands like Brodmannn, Quadral, Guru, Qol, VAC, Tellurium Q, getting prominent display and to hear them strut their stuff in a different setting, needless to say I came away very happy with our choices,

Stereo Tines reviewer Clement Perry had this to say of the Qol in his recent review:

                                  NO OBIGATION - FREE 5 DAY TRIAL:
You can determine the amazing / unquie gains with Qol in your system, just for a learning experience with no sales pressure - we invite you to audition one, you have nothing to lose with everything to gain, ring to arrange a free trial in your system.

We are delighted to announce that we have been offerd the NZ agecy for the world leading brand of Morch tonearms.

There are 3 tonearms & 4 armtubes to maximise your cartridge compliance and your musical enjoyment within the Morch range:

Our 1st shipment of the hightly regarded and award winng Sutherland Phono pre-amplifiers have arrived, this time around we bought in the:

Sutherland PH3D @ RRP $1,575ea
TAS 2007 Editors' Choice Award Winner! TAS 2007 Phonostage of the Year Award Winner!
Highly Recommended by Hi-Fi News! 

Steve Kramers summarry comments:

"more focused imaging perspective with a marginally deeper soundstage and more precise lateral placement"......