Tom Vu brought a complete Triangle Art system to CAF, with his trademark gold-encrusted turntables at the center of the room—not one, not two, but three! Vu sold the most expensive turntable while I was away fetching coffee.
The cheapest analog front-end on display was the Hathor turntable with the Horus tonearm, offered as a package for $8400. Further up the line were the Maestro ($9900) and Anubis ($18,000) 'tables, the former bearing a Horus 12" tonearm ($4400), the latter with the Osiris Diamond Mk2 12" tonearm ($9000). All three 'tables bore Zeus MC cartridges ($4800 each).
A P200 tubed dual-mono phono stage ($18,000) was in use. Vu and his minions swapped between an I-20 tube single-ended, dual-mono integrated amplifier ($12,500) and an L200 Mk2 tube dual-mono line preamplifier ($25,000) plus a pair of M100 tubed monoblock amplifiers ($25,000/each); the amplifiers were making their US debut.
Also debuting was Vu's two-way, 97dB/W/1m-sensitive Selene horn loudspeaker, which is made from solid walnut and wields a 15" paper Beyma driver ($20,000/pair).
Cabling was also Triangle Art: Rhea Ultimate Power Cord ($7500), Rhea Reference Power Cord ($3000), Rhea Reference Interconnects ($3000/pair), and Rhea Reference Speaker cables ($6000/pair).
This system produced a large-scale, immensely detailed sound that was at the same time warm and woody. Things sound like what they're made of, as Herb Reichert likes to say.
The cheapest analog front-end on display was the Hathor turntable with the Horus tonearm, offered as a package for $8400. Further up the line were the Maestro ($9900) and Anubis ($18,000) 'tables, the former bearing a Horus 12" tonearm ($4400), the latter with the Osiris Diamond Mk2 12" tonearm ($9000). All three 'tables bore Zeus MC cartridges ($4800 each).
A P200 tubed dual-mono phono stage ($18,000) was in use. Vu and his minions swapped between an I-20 tube single-ended, dual-mono integrated amplifier ($12,500) and an L200 Mk2 tube dual-mono line preamplifier ($25,000) plus a pair of M100 tubed monoblock amplifiers ($25,000/each); the amplifiers were making their US debut.
Also debuting was Vu's two-way, 97dB/W/1m-sensitive Selene horn loudspeaker, which is made from solid walnut and wields a 15" paper Beyma driver ($20,000/pair).
Cabling was also Triangle Art: Rhea Ultimate Power Cord ($7500), Rhea Reference Power Cord ($3000), Rhea Reference Interconnects ($3000/pair), and Rhea Reference Speaker cables ($6000/pair).
This system produced a large-scale, immensely detailed sound that was at the same time warm and woody. Things sound like what they're made of, as Herb Reichert likes to say.
