Just like last year, I saved retailer Audiophile Experts' room for last. I stopped by their room at the 5pm closing hour on Sunday, as the crowd headed home and exhibitors started dismantling their setups. That's because Stacy and Mathieu, proprietors of Audiophile Experts, like to cap off my harried show reporting with a soulful, uninterrupted musical performance, usually from an analog-fronted rig.
This year's source was a B77 MkIII reel-to-reel machine by Revox, for which Audiophile Experts is the exclusive Canadian dealer. The system also included an Accuphase C-3900S preamplifier ($41,999), a pair of Accuphase A-300 monoblocks ($29,999 each), Dali Kore speakers ($160,000/pair; shown below), an Accuphase PS-1250 power supply ($17,499), and cables from Luna's Red series. All prices are in Canadian dollars.
The sound was marvelous: dynamic, visceral, bold, harmonically rich, expansive. On two tracks by Hugh Masekela, the saxophone had the scale of the real instrument, tom-toms were fleshed out dimensionally and tonally, the trumpet sounded realistically sharp and air-piercing, and the piano conveyed the shimmering presence of a real piano in a real space.
When a passage picked up momentum, the festiveness of the music shone through, full of layers and glistening vocal harmonies, well-integrated rather than blended indistinctly. In another passage, the sound was huge, with corporeal images and a rainbow of tonal colors. It all added up to a refined, engaging, relaxing presentation that ended the show in style.
Other gear demoed in the Audiophile Experts room, which I didn't get to hear during my visit, included a Stable 33.33 33.2 MkII Orea turntable ($20,000 with a Stable 33.33 T-11D tonearm), an Accuphase AC-6 cartridge ($7499), an Accuphase C-57 phono stage ($15,499), an Accuphase DP-770 CD/SACD player ($27,999), and a Lumin X2 network streamer ($22,999).
The sound was marvelous: dynamic, visceral, bold, harmonically rich, expansive. On two tracks by Hugh Masekela, the saxophone had the scale of the real instrument, tom-toms were fleshed out dimensionally and tonally, the trumpet sounded realistically sharp and air-piercing, and the piano conveyed the shimmering presence of a real piano in a real space.
Other gear demoed in the Audiophile Experts room, which I didn't get to hear during my visit, included a Stable 33.33 33.2 MkII Orea turntable ($20,000 with a Stable 33.33 T-11D tonearm), an Accuphase AC-6 cartridge ($7499), an Accuphase C-57 phono stage ($15,499), an Accuphase DP-770 CD/SACD player ($27,999), and a Lumin X2 network streamer ($22,999).
