Audacious Audio

Silver platters and I began divorce proceedings over a decade ago. The separation began when the husband and I contemplated liberating ourselves from crime-ridden East Oakland and moving to placid Port Townsend. There was no way I was going to haul 55 big boxes of CDs 846 miles and have no place to put them.

Full-range speakers are usually at least three-way rather than two-way, for good reasons. Although a three-way crossover network is harder to do right, and there can be phase-coherence issues if the drivers aren't well-matched and well-integrated, a two-way speaker with a woofer big enough to generate room-filling lows is even more difficult.

I first heard about Devialet and their inaugural product, the D-Premier integrated amplifier, in show reports from the 2009 Salon Haute Fidélité Paris show. Fascinated by its idiosyncratic design and ignorant of the boundaries of my own comprehension, I looked up the patents. Devialet's flag was planted in my consciousness.

When auditioning a new audio component, I invariably start with some ideas about what I should listen for, based on my preconceptions about the pitfalls and propensities of products in its category. For example, with digital, I'm listening for sound that's awake and unprocessed. With every component, I start by hoping I can spot their colorations and assess their level of importance.

International audio shows are a white-knuckle thrill ride. The moment I first entered one of the four colossal, cathedral-like "Halles" of High End Munich 2024, my brain short-circuited. Among the products that gripped my senses that weekend, the Brutalist allure of the BennyAudio Odyssey Turntable ($45,000) spoke to me loudest.