While some companies are perfecting
state-of-the-art analog, dCS is going for SOTA digital with their new $8000 USD Grieg
digital-to-digital and analog-to-digital converter (left). The unit can accept a digital,
line-level or phono-level signal, then it upsamples and can convert the signal to DSD. The
Grieg then "talks" to the $13,000 USD Elgar Plus digital-to-analog converter via
a 1394 (FireWire) interface. The Elgar Plus supports both 24-bit/192kHz and DSD formats natively.
It is software driven, and the company's rep say that when switching between the two
digital formats, the computer inside effectively reboots, which takes about 30 seconds.
According to dCS, regardless of which high-resolution digital format ends up being
accepted in the marketplace, their unit will work with it.
While dCS is doing innovative things with A/D
and D/A converters, 47 Laboratory showed their PiTracer CD transport, which sells for a
whopping $25,000 USD. This is one very cool unit.
That's not a file server -- that's the new
500W Omega Mono amplifier from Canada's Classé Audio. It is said to output 2000W at 1
ohm. The price is 74,000 DM per pair.
Gryphon had another powerhouse amplifier on
display.The Antileon Signature is a fully balanced, 100W class-A stereo amplifier that
weighs over 200 pounds.
Gryphon also showed their Adagio upsampling
(to 96kHz) CD player priced at 12,000 DM.
Krell showed the all-aluminum-cabinet (in
silver or black) LAT-2 loudspeaker priced at $10,000 USD per pair. This bookshelf
loudspeaker has a 7" woofer and 1" tweeter.
Jeff Fritz holds the diminutive Acoustic
Energy AEGO2 satellite speaker. The system consists of a powered subwoofer (below left),
the AEGO2 speakers (which are powered by the sub), and cables. The total price is 1200 DM.
Germany's HGP Loudspeakers showed their new
2.5-way Fuga 2, which uses ceramic-coated Kevlar woofers. It is priced at 13,000 DM per
pair.
The lovely Odeon La Traviata two-way horn
loudspeaker has a reported sensitivity of 93dB and is priced at 14,500 DM per pair.
Compared on a per-square-inch basis, this may
well be the heaviest speaker on the planet. The Fisher & Fisher SN-550's cabinet is
made completely from slate in order to damp cabinet resonances. It uses Dynaudio,
ScanSpeak and SEAS drivers and is priced at 28,000 DM.
Linn showed their new Komri loudspeakers,
which have built-in powered bass modules with low-end response reportedly to 10Hz (and the
way the speakers were being played, we believe it!). This five-way speaker sells for
80,000 DM per pair.
