I always have time Hervé Delétraz, so we jumped into Blue Light's room, where Jonathan Tinn had assembled a system to show off darTZeel's new NHB-18Nspreamplifier ($23,250). It's battery powered, offering 15 hours of listening between charging sessions and includes a fairly sophisticated phono section. Hervé doesn't believe in contact switches, potentiometers, or stepped attenuators, so he came up with new solutions—including an analog passive signal attenuator, which, he claims, operates over 96dB in .5dB increments.

Also in the system were two NHB-108 amplifiers, EMM Labs CDSD and DACEE, and Von Schweikert VR-9SE loudspeakers.

Nils Lofgren sounded astonishingly present through this thoroughbred system and, to quote the governator, we'll be back.

In the picture L-R: Hervé Delétraz, Jonathan Tinn, Serge Roch.