Daily Coverage - May
10th
All prices are quoted in euros unless
otherwise noted.
1 euro is approximately .91 US dollar.
Germany's ClearLight Audio Diamond Symphony
speaker features a proprietary ribbon tweeter and costs €15,000 per pair.
Lavardin is from France. Their IT Reference
integrated amplifier is said to deliver 55Wpc into 8 ohms, 85Wpc into 4 ohms, and features
four line inputs. The price is €4320.
Finland is making quite a name for itself in
the speaker world these days. The Penaudio Charisma loudspeaker (€3000 with stands)
comes in a system with the Charm subwoofer (€2000). The smallish system sounded quite
full and displayed excellent clarity. The speakers are dressed in a Finnish birch plywood
veneer.
The integrated amplifier in the top picture is
SQF's €50,000 Pharao, and underneath is the lower-priced €8400 Son of Pharao.
The Pharao features 75Wpc output and micro-processor controlled variable loudspeaker
damping. The Son of Pharao is a scaled-down version of its "father" and outputs
40Wpc.
The new €1500 Quad CD 99 CD player from
Britain features variable volume control as well as multiple digital inputs on the back
panel. Should you not have any analog sources, the player then becomes your main system's
control unit.
Restek of Germany uses a lot of chrome in its
designs, making for a startling display. From top to bottom are the Epos CD player
(€3400), Ergo FM tuner (€2450), Editor preamplifier (€3600), and Emas phono
stage (€3750). The Emas allows simultaneous connection of up to eight
cartridges!
Trigon is also from Germany, and their TRE-50
mono amplifier outputs 150 watts and retails for €1329 each. The amp actively
monitors the line voltage and displays it on the front panel.
Among many items, Germany's Vincent showed
(from left to right) the €198 Spark II 30Wpc integrated amplifier, SP-996 mono
amplifier (no price given, 50 watts), and Ares speaker (€650 each).
Doug Schneider was quite impressed with the
big sound radiating from this fairly small David's Window 1 loudspeaker (€1950 per
pair), which uses only one driver barely over 3 inches in diameter! And that's
not a coaxial driver, either -- it's one cone producing as full-band sound as it can. The
designer talked extensively about his goal of correcting for acoustical phase in the
crossover. Male and female vocals were surprisingly fleshed out. |
