Equipment Reviews

: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Created: 15 April 2013

Cabasse Pacific 3 When I asked to review a properly expensive pair of loudspeakers and was offered a pair from France, my trepidation ran high. Damn. I’d been pining for some example of traditionally designed, overbuilt awesomeness to be ushered into my listening room for what would be my first foray into Ultra Audio territory. Instead, a pair of Cabasse Pacific 3s was sent from across the pond in what could only be an unorthodox fashion -- hot-air balloon, perhaps? Cabasse makes some pretty wonky stuff, the pinnacle of which is La Sphère, a spherical (of course) four-way coaxial loudspeaker that retails starting at $175,900 USD per pair. Cabasse it is, then.

Description

The three-way, floorstanding Pacific 3 ($16,000/pair) is 51.6”H x 11.4”W x 23.2”D and weigh 124 pounds each. My strong recommendation would be to enlist some help to marshal the large Pacifics into place. The Pacific 3 is distinctive in appearance. The eye is first drawn to the white-ringed coaxial tweeter/midrange drivers. A friend took one look at them and said, “Nice speakers, bro, but what’s with the alien eyes?” The BC17 driver doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the Pacific 3’s looks, but don’t be fooled into thinking that it’s a gimmick or merely for show. The tweeter is on the large size at 1.35”, and made of Kaladex, an alien-sounding plastic from DuPont. Cabasse decided to forgo a metal diaphragm because, though the first breakup mode of a well-designed aluminum tweeter can be pushed just past the range of human hearing (which tops out at around 20kHz), when breakup does occur, the Q factor (a parameter that enjoys an inverse relationship with damping) rises sharply, with an amplitude potentially reaching 15dB. In other words, the driver rings like hell. The reason that many high-end speakers now make tweeters of beryllium is that they don’t tend to break up until around 35kHz. Kaladex was chosen for its considerable rigidity, but it also has good internal damping, which prevents, or at least ameliorates, high-frequency breakup modes. The plastic’s ratio of high rigidity to density also yields high efficiency and low distortion. The Kaladex tweeter’s upper-frequency limit is specified as 20kHz.

: Written by: Jeff Fritz; Created: 01 April 2013

Venere 3.0 Select Component It is the reviewer’s job not only to describe the sound of the component under test -- although that’s a huge part of it -- but also to provide some context for that sound. It’s naïve to think that products and their sounds exist in a vacuum, with no relation to other, similar products. There’s always something else vying for the buyer’s attention, and these days the competition is fierce in almost every category of consumer electronics, and at all the popular price points. Therefore, one of the most relevant assessments a reviewer can make for a reader is where a product ranks among its peers in the overall marketplace. This gives potential buyers an informed overview that they can use to help make wise buying decisions.

For example, if you were to walk into a showroom and hear, see, and feel the Sonus Faber Venere 3.0, you might not guess their cost right off, particularly if you have any experience with high-end audio and know how absurdly high the prices can be. You might be surprised that the Venere 3.0 retails for $3498 USD per pair -- surprised by how little that is compared with how much it buys.

One of the most interesting tests of the cost of a new product is the general public -- not just the subset of buyers who might be interested in that particular product. We’ve all had friends who gasp when we tell them how much our new preamp cost. Conversely, folks who have visited my home while the Venere 3.0s were playing have been quite accepting when told the retail price of the speakers -- a semi-remarkable feat for a high-end brand. Let’s face it: most of the high end makes no sense to the average guy.

: Written by: Jeff Fritz; Created: 15 March 2013

Select Component There isn’t a more noteworthy trend in high-end audio today than that of companies smashing the price/performance ratios of yesterday -- in both directions. You don’t have to look far to see abysmal $200,000/pair loudspeakers, and you can find a gem for very little money around almost any corner. Hegel Music Systems is firmly about the latter.

Hegel HD25 Hegel, of Norway, has made a steady push into the heart of high-end audio with a stream of products that has helped expand audiophiles’ ideas about what level of performance they can and should expect for reasonable prices. I can think of no finer example of that than their H300 integrated amplifier-DAC ($5500 USD), which Hans Wetzel reviewed for GoodSound! in late 2012, and which won a SoundStage! Network Product of the Year award for Exceptional Value. Hot on the heels of the H300 came the announcement of the HD25 digital-to-analog converter ($2500), Hegel’s new top-of-the-line digital offering. Yes, you read that right: The best DAC the company makes costs only $2500. Isn’t that, alone, refreshing?

: Written by: Howard Kneller; Created: 01 March 2013

Select Component Ed Meitner, founder and chief designer of EMM Labs, has an impeccable digital pedigree that dates back to the 1970s. He has not only published groundbreaking research concerning the causes and cures of jitter, he also has designed and manufactured a series of digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters, adaptive filters, and disc transports that have often advanced the state of the art of digital music reproduction.

EMM Labs DAC2X An example is the Meitner IDAT DAC of 1992, made by the now-defunct Museatex. Among other innovations, it contained a low-jitter custom data receiver, a unique DSP-based system that analyzed the digital signal and routed it to one of several different filters, and a then-unheard-of eight DAC chips.

Ed Meitner also has done some impressive work relating to SACD technology. Introduced in 1999, the Super Audio Compact Disc has to this day never won mass acceptance. In fact, on a number of occasions, its creators, Sony and Philips Electronics, appeared to be on the verge of pulling the plug on it. Very early in SACD’s history, the DVD Forum, an association of hardware manufacturers, software firms, and content providers involved in the design and production of DVDs, rejected its adoption. Not surprisingly, many Forum members were reluctant to adopt a technology controlled by Sony and Philips. But many also disliked SACD’s sound quality, at least as it then existed.

: Written by: Ryan Coleman; Created: 15 February 2013

Select Component Over the past ten years or so, I’ve listened to quite a few Esoteric products: the DV-50, DV-60, and X-01 D2 disc players, the MG-20 speakers, and the P-03 transport and D-03 DAC, with G-0S clock. Almost every time, I came away feeling respect but not love for the gear, and never lust. These components could extract information in a way that was crystalline and competent, but that after a while I found annoying as hell. Esoteric D-02 Esoteric’s house sound reminded me of early iterations of ceramic drivers: tremendous clarity, but without that breath of life that connects me to the music I love. And music, always and everywhere, should move you: it should excite, enflame, dazzle, and astound. Needless to say, I never bought an Esoteric component, always opting for more romantic-sounding, usually tubed gear, whose colorations helped offset the inherent flaws of the Compact Disc, rather than ruthlessly expose them as Esoteric gear does.

Or, I should say, did.

: Written by: Peter Roth; Created: 01 February 2013

Select Component Vivid Audio Giya G3 Just over a decade ago, loudspeaker manufacturer Vivid Audio sprang up in a most unusual place -- not the Shire of Middle Earth, but Durban of South Africa. Such a curious location would not be terribly surprising if assembling MDF boxes, OEM drivers, and crossover kits were what the new company had in mind -- a woodshop can be located almost anywhere. But Vivid’s raison d’être is diametrically opposed to such a conventional approach. Vivid’s principals set as their goal nothing less than world-class sound. Willing to test previously uncharted waters, company founder Philip Guttentag and close friend and ex-Bowers & Wilkins president Robert Trunz called on Laurence Dickie, the creative genius behind B&W’s Matrix-enclosure innovations and groundbreaking Nautilus superspeaker, to bring to bear his driver designs and enclosure acumen.

Vivid launched themselves in July 2004 with the Oval line of B1, K1, and C1 models, but it was a few years before their efforts percolated into the consciousness of the world of high-performance audio. Yet when Vivid broke through the din of “me-too” competence, they did so globally. SoundStage! Network publisher Doug Schneider, always on the lookout for original thinking and outstanding sound, admits to having initially passed by the Oval B1 ($15,000 USD per pair) -- the keystone of Vivid’s original line of speakers -- thinking it a mere novelty. After learning of Dickie’s key role, of the pedigrees of Vivid’s principals, and the seriousness of their efforts, Doug deemed a second look warranted. He found the B1 revelatory, concluding that “there isn’t a speaker costing less that I like more . . . . [Y]ou can consider me a fool for having overlooked Vivid Audio and the B1 for so long, based on mere assumptions.”

: Written by: Tim Shea; Created: 01 January 2013

PBN Audio Scan-Speak B741 I was originally slated to review PBN Audio’s InnerChoice Lucy minimonitor, and was very much looking forward to it, given my relatively recent interest in higher-quality stand-mounted monitors. I was also looking forward to hearing the Lucys because they would give me a glimpse -- albeit a small one -- into the mind of Peter B. Noerbaek (hence PBN), who has designed some very highly regarded speakers and electronics. Did you know that PBN even offers turntables? Me neither, until I perused their website. In fact, Noerbaek e-mailed me a photo of a $100,000 ’table he’d just sent to a customer in New York. It was a stunner. Anyway, due to other production demands, it was going to take a while to get me a pair of Lucys, so PBN asked if I’d be interested in reviewing one of their latest design projects instead.

The Scan-Speak B741 is a fairly good-sized, three-way floorstander incorporating some very high-end components. Twist my arm -- an even bigger glimpse into the mind of PBN. Maybe we’ll see ya later, Lucy.

: Written by: Michael Wright; Created: 15 December 2012

Blue Circle Audio BC109 I’ve long been a fan of preamplifiers from Blue Circle Audio. From their early, surprisingly affordable, tube-driven models to the hybrid and solid-state preamps available today, Blue Circle has provided something for everyone. The sounds of their preamps have never been etched, or so overburdened with detail that you could hear a fly crawling on the recording-studio wall. Nor did they sound too tubey. Blue Circle preamps have always served the music, and the upgrade program instituted by founder-designer Gilbert Yeung has made it possible to begin relatively inexpensively, then upgrade to exceedingly good sound.

: Written by: Jeff Fritz; Created: 01 December 2012

Dynaudio Confidence C2 One of the questions readers often ask is how I choose what to review. My answers vary: What’s new that readers might be interested in? What products are creating buzz in the audiophile community? What looks promising in terms of sound? Over the years, I’ve gotten a pretty good handle on what products will ultimately lead to reviews -- positive or negative or somewhere in between -- that lots of folks will want to read, and that knowledge informs my decisions. A Dynaudio speaker is always a good bet for review, and the reasons are as clear as day.

Some companies can be counted on, and Dynaudio is one of them. This Danish manufacturer produces high-performing loudspeakers in a wide range of prices, and has a devoted following built up through years of success. From examining acoustical measurements, both our own and those of other magazines, I know that Dynaudio speakers are technically excellent, as they should be -- the company is one of the few speaker manufacturers to have its own anechoic chamber. They also make all their own drivers. Also, I’ve rarely heard a Dynaudio speaker, at an audio show or elsewhere, sound anything less than very good, and more often than not it sounds better than that. All of this is to say that I felt that Dynaudio’s Confidence C2 Signature ($15,000 USD per pair) would be a good candidate for a review: something that would be likely to perform well, and that readers would thus be interested in.

: Written by: Vade Forrester; Created: 15 November 2012

First Watt J2 Pass Labs amplifiers have inspired more than a few moments of lust in the hearts of veteran audiophiles. Big, beautiful, powerful, and expensive, their sound, according to some, has advanced the state of the art. But audiophiles may not know about designer Nelson Pass’s second company, First Watt, which produces a line of electronics smaller, cheaper, but possibly even more innovative than the mighty Pass Labs models. The First Watt amps give Nelson Pass an opportunity to try new circuit-design technology on a limited scale. The first FW products were unusual amplifiers designed to work well with single-cone drivers such as the legendary Lowthers, but over the years the line has been expanded to include preamps and crossovers.