Levels of Excellence Posted Mon Jan 12, 2009, 7:29 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus

Tara Labs has so many levels of cables that factory manager Matthew Sellars, who assists designer Matthew Bond with cable design and oversees implementation, had to draw a four-tiered chart just to explain where the company's newest offerings fall in the Tara Labs hierarchy. That may be an exceedingly long opening sentence. But so is Tara Labs' product list.

Tara Labs' top-of-the-line is the Extreme Series. That includes the oft-praised Zero interconnect and Omega speaker cable. It turns out that Zero and Omega have four levels. They are, in descending order from the summit, Cobalt, Gold, Onyx, and Edge. The higher the level, the greater the articulation. The Edge series uses a simplified all-Teflon construction compared to what is found in Gold and Cobalt, mimicking its daddy's articulation while delivering perhaps 90% of what you get higher up. Edge also lacks Tara Labs' special Zero connectors.

Due later this year are a top-of-the-line power cable ($4800/6') and Cobalt interconnects and speaker cable. I was not told projected prices for the other two. These will be Tara Labs' ultimate statement products, at least for now.

Shown for the first time at CES 2009 were the Omega Cobalt speaker cables (I hope I've got that right—I wrote down $22,000, but neglected to note for what length), and Zero Edge interconnect ($9000 for what I presume to be a 1m pair). Unveiled a few months back at RMAF were the Zero Gold interconnects ($18,000/1m).

In the room, I heard a system that included Zero Gold, Zero Edge, Omega Gold, Cobalt AC, and digital Zero Gold linking Dynaudio 30th Anniversary Sapphire speakers, an as yet unnamed prototype 500W DC amp, MSD CD player and DAC, Gryphon preamp, and Blue Smoke Black Box. Unfortunately, as John Atkinson explained to me afterwards, the Dynaudio 30th Anniversary Sapphire speakers were demmed with their grilles off. As pretty as they looked, these speakers were designed to be played with their grilles on. With the grilles off, the demo was sabotaged by excessively bright treble. The same thing happened in the Ultralink XLO/Argentum room, where the Dynaudios were also demmed with their grills off. Okay at low levels, but not when the climaxes come in Strauss' Alpine Symphony. (See the Sennheiser HD 800 blog, as well as my R2D4 entry in the February issue for more on this recording).

I did once hear the Zero interconnect in optimal conditions once, at Ultimate A/V in Chicago, and was incredibly impressed by its soundstaging, clarity, and full-range timbral accuracy. I look forward to the next opportunity.

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Continuing the Legacy Posted Mon Jan 12, 2009, 7:24 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus

Visiting Kara Chafee of de Havilland, whose amplifiers invariably grace music with a wonderful sense of air, enabled me to take a first listen to Cable Research Lab (CRL) cables. CRL's mid-level "Silver" line is a very recent recipient of a "Product of the Year Award" from a certain publication known for its absolutism. Another very positive publication fed CRL an award in 2007.

CRL cables were designed by Winston Ma (First Impressions Music) and Paul Weitzel in the late 1990s. Once known as FIM Cables, their name was changed in 2002, around the time Ma sold the company to Garth Leerer of Musical Surroundings. Then, in 2006, after Leerer discovered that he was concentrating on other products to the detriment of his cable line, Chip Winston of Fort Lauderdale took possession of the company.

Chip has since upgraded the copper used in his cables to OFC 6N. He has also improved other materials and construction, and switched to Bocchino Audio connectors from Australia.

There are three series. "Copper" ($1000/1m interconnect) features a braided copper design. "Silver" ($1500/1m interconnect, $1600/6' speaker cable) is a hand-assembled, solid-core design in which terminations are compression-crimped rather than soldered. The top-of-the-line "Gold" ($2500/1m interconnect) is also made of 6Ns solid-core copper. CRL's two power cables are the Mk.II (unshielded) for amps and the Mk.IV (shielded) for front-end components. The cables are mostly sold direct, with distributors handling sales in Australia, Madrid, and Portugal.

"My goal is neutrality," Chip told me. "I care most about musical passion."

That's one thing this system had down to a "t" (as in triode). What Chip doesn't seem to have down pat is prices. What he quoted me differs from what's on his website, which in turn differs from what's stated on the review printout he handed me. In fact, even the names of his power cables differ. Chalk this up to being the end of the third day of a very exhausting show. Thank goodness for the generous sip of wine freely offered by the NFS (Not For Sale) room at T.H.E. Show of the beloved Buddha, aka Anton, who is a frequent poster to Stereophile's ever-lively forum.

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An Honest Connection Posted Mon Jan 12, 2009, 7:21 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus

CES presented me with my first opportunity to make the acquaintance of Stephen Hill and Straight Wire. The Florida company has just released a "push prong" re-usable, solderless RCA plug that makes Straight Wire cable termination a snap. Especially appealing to custom installers, the termination actually leads to a higher level of performance by enabling quick silver-plated termination without piercing cable insulation.

Straight Wire has also recently released the Serenade II interconnect ($400/1m pair) that features locking plugs and a variety of terminations. Internal conductors offer ultra low resistance and reactance. The cable contains eight groups of compressed CDA101 copper (true OFHC), and is designed to eliminate strand-to-strand "jumping." Two different kinds of insulation are available.

Hill says Straight Wire measures every one of its US-made cables before handmatching to ensure that the specs of both cables in a pair closely match. Records are kept in perpetuity to allow correct replacement in the event your beloved pooch chews up one of the cables. Hill recommends alternating different models of Straight Wire cabling in a system to achieve, in his words, "really good detail and effortless soundstaging." (The display was static, making audition impossible).

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Getting Pure Posted Mon Jan 12, 2009, 7:19 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus

Jim Aud of Purist Audio Design has released several new products. The diminutive Digital Isolation Adapter ($300) plugs into the S/PDIF output of a CD transport or music server with then the RCA digital cable that connects the transport and DAC plugged into it. The Adapter is claimed to electrically isolate the transport to the DAC, reduce jitter via control of the 75 ohm impedances, and reduce EMI/RF noise.

The Single Point Power Conditioner ($1000), not yet in production, is an advanced multi-stage filter network designed to control and suppress EMI and RFI, lower noise floor, and enrich soundstage presentation and detail. The unit is said to work best when dedicated to a single piece of equipment, thereby supply maximum isolation to those components that require power conditioning. The unit is claimed effective to 1GHz. Internal wiring is the same as in Purist Audio Design's power cords.

Sometime last year, the company released the Purist Limited Edition Power Cord. The cord combines all of Purist's advanced power cable technologies with a passive power conditioning circuit that provides EMI/RFI noise control, filtering, and reduction. Input/output connectors are the M1/F1 flagship from Oyaide.

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Why So Expensive? Posted Mon Jan 12, 2009, 1:42 PM ET
By Wes Phillips

It belonged to a tenor! (ba-dum-dum) Thank you ladies and gentlemen, I'll be here all week.

Ahem. Tenor's 350W monoblock Reference 350 ($90,000) are big and bold. They're hybrid OTLs using two ECC803/12AX7 s for the first gain stage and a JJ EC99 and six 7044 buffers in the second. Output is by MOSFETs. They're drop dead gorgeous and, driving a pair of Hansen Audio Emperors ($60,000/pair),they sounded ravishing. Effortless? Check. Detailed? Doubled check. Best of all, the music had me melting in my chair—at shows, that's high praise.

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Give Me a Tenor Posted Mon Jan 12, 2009, 1:40 PM ET
By Wes Phillips

Tenor's promised Tenor Pre preamplifier ($40,000) is a hybrid, using tubes for the input stage and MOSFETs for the output. It should be available in two months. As a whole, the Tenor system (fleshed out with Hansen Emperors and Kubala-Sosna cables) was outstanding.

Tenor is definitely ready for prime time. They have the goods, now they need to establish a market. Ironically, in this economic downturn, the market for ultra-high-end audio seems to be growing, so they may be well situated to grow.

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Inside Scoop Posted Mon Jan 12, 2009, 12:18 PM ET
By Wes Phillips

This is what the Lamm ML3 Signature looks like under the hood. Clean layout and P2P wiring throughout.

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On the Lamm Posted Mon Jan 12, 2009, 11:59 AM ET
By Wes Phillips

Lamm was driving the new Wilson Maxx series 3 with its 32Wpc ML3 Signature SE triode monoblocks ($139,290/pair). It was my first chance to hear either, so I can't tell you if it was the speakers or the amps that were making the magic happen, but happen it did.

The ML3 Sigs employ no overall feedback and are pure class-A. They utilize a direct-heated GM-70 and "one of the most sophisticated power supplies that have ever been used in building any audio device."

No need to state the obvious—that's a stratospheric price tag. And I'm not sure that if I could easily afford it, I could actually write a six-digit check—much less one for the whole system, wires and all—but I can't argue with the results. The Lamm/Wilson combo was among the top five musical experiences of the show—and one that demonstrated that, as good as really good high-end audio is, there are some obsessed builders out there that are operating on an entirely different plane. I can wish my system sounded this good, but it doesn't. Sigh.

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Go Indigo Posted Mon Jan 12, 2009, 11:52 AM ET
By Wes Phillips

Chord demonstrated the absolutely stunning Indigo Advanced D to A ($15,000). Yes, that's an iPod dock on top, but the Indigo isn't just another iPod dock. For one thing, you can only dock Chord modified iPods directly into it, allowing Chord to access the digital data in the iPod. The Indigo also has a A2DP radio "dongle" that can seamlessly stream digital radio ir music from anywhere in the room. Another dongle is supplied to stream analog output from unmodified iPods.

Additional digital inputs include S/PDIF, AES/EBU,TOSLINK, USB, and high-quality Bluetooth. What's that, you say, isn't Bluetooth a strange choice for high quality?. Chord uses Bluetooth to extract the digital data and input it directly into its DAC which incorporates the field programable gate array(specifically, Xilinx Spartan 3, which is customized to a massive" 1.2 million gates). The FPGA then handles S/PDIF switching, decoding the digital PLL< RAM buffer controller, WTA filtering, and a 5^th gen Pulse Array DAC.

There's also an analog input (RCA and XLR) and to line level outputs (variable and pass through). There's even a headphone jack.

Of course, its construction is solid chord—the casework is flawless.

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Cool and Hot Posted Mon Jan 12, 2009, 10:48 AM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus

As I was heading out dazed from the Sennheiser headphone experience, Dynaudio’s Mike Manousselis invited me to briefly listen to their demo. In the middle of the Convention Center’s huge South Hall, and at a reasonable volume level that did not attempt to drown out the ubiquitous din, a very cool Patricia Barber had claimed the space as her own. Abetted by a Wadia player and Simaudio amplification, speakers that I think were the Focus 360—Mike, help me out here; I hadn’t yet come down to earth from the Sennheisers—were doing a marvelous job of filling the space with inviting sound. If anything could entice me to transition from Richard Strauss’ Alpine heights to Patricia Barber’s sensual coolness, it was this speaker/electronics combo.

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Fabled Cables In Close Relation Posted Mon Jan 12, 2009, 10:44 AM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus

Siltech Importer Ethan Wood, who claims to be the biggest man in the high-end industry, gave me low-down on the family affair known as Siltech and Crystal Cable. (Note: Crystal Cable is in the process of choosing a new importer for its cable and speaker line). Siltech was founded by Edwin Van der Kleig, while Crystal is property of his wife Gabi. Both companies use highly pure silver and 24K gold in the majority of their products.

Siltech, which believes that 60–80% of a cable's sound is determined by its quality of metallurgy, and the rest by its geometry and insulation, uses proprietary terminations and a special thermal treatment. Gold is employed to ameliorate micro-distortions in silver, retaining all the positive attributes of silver while filling the crystalline gaps between silver molecules. Crystal Cable uses the same metallurgy but different geometries, and is designed to be visually arresting.

Siltech's "crown" is the Siltech Emperor. Containing 8Ns single-crystal silver, a 2m pair of interconnects costs $37,000. (FYI, a single kg of 8Ns silver costs $45,000). The capsule seen on the wire does have some effect on microdynamics, I was told, but also makes it difficult for Chinese counterfeiters to produce rip-offs. New to Siltech's line is the Zero Ohm Link interconnect series, whose most expensive Zero Ohm Link Diamond is $3300 for a 1m pair with either RCA or XLR termination. Empress Crown interconnects are $17,200/1m pair. A 2.5m set of Emperor Crown speaker cables will set you back $45,800.

Siltech also has two loudspeakers, the Pantheon XXV ($130,000/pair) and the new Pantheon XX (pictured), which debuted at CES for $40,000/pair. While I did not get the opportunity to hear it—so many cables and tweaks, so little time—the visually stunning Crystal Cable speaker on the other side of the wall—JA will be blogging later today on this speaker—sounded fantastic on an excerpt from the Reference Recording disc of Rutter's Requiem.

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World’s Finest Headphones? Posted Sun Jan 11, 2009, 9:17 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus

When John Atkinson requested that I check out the new state-of-the-art Sennheiser HD 800 headphones ($1399.95), which will debut next month, I dreaded descending into the madness of the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Little did I know that instead of encountering an impossible throng of tech-crazed computer geeks, I would have my peak sonic experience of CES 2009.

As it turned out, due to the economic downturn, the crowds in the South Hall were far easier to handle than the primed-for-12-step throngs one encounters trying to navigate thru the casino that separates the Sands Convention Center and the Venetian Tower. It may have taken me a good half hour to find the Sennheiser booth, and another 20 or so minutes before I could be admitted for a demo. But once I began to listen, I became so transported that I even forgot to snap a good close-up photo of what may very well be the finest headphones on planet Earth.

Handmade in Germany, the Sennheiser HD 800 utilizes what the company claims is the most advanced driver technology in any headphone. Sennheiser has developed the largest dynamic headphone transducer available - 56mm in diameter—that works with a patented ring design to deliver the most natural sound possible. Absolute fidelity is further achieved by a circumaural design (open on the outside), and a cup geometry that insures that the transducer never touches the ear. The headband is easy to adjust, and in no way creates pressure on the ear or skull. I often dislike wearing headphones, but the HD 800s were a non-fatiguing pleasure to don.

The HD 800's cables, made by Sennheiser, are silver-coated, 100% oxygen-free copper. They are also detachable, should the dedicated audiophile wish to substitute any of the aftermarket cables that will undoubtedly be manufactured once word gets out how good these headphones are. The frequency response is a truly amazing "6Hz to 51kHz."

To show just how much headphone technology has improved, Sennheiser set up a demo in which listeners were able to switch between Sennheiser's former top of the line, the HD 650, and the twice as costly HD 800. Associated equipment included a Meitner CD/SACD player driving a Benchmark DAC1 USB used as a headphone amp.

The first recording choice was mine: Lorraine Hunt Lieberson's Avie SACD of Handel arias. The HD 800s brought Lieberson's voice closer to me than I have ever before experienced it, even at live concerts. As the great mezzo-soprano bared her soul, it felt as if she was opening her heart inside my head. The sense of naked intimacy was breathtaking.

Equally striking was the difference between the HD 800 and the HD 650. The sound of the new king is far more natural, with increased dynamics and a truly audiophile experience of air. Most impressive is the finer edge to voice and instruments.

On a soft rock recording of KT Tunstall singing to spare accompaniment, I noticed some noise and glare on the 650s that was nowhere to be found on the 800s. "The HD 800s are very, very smooth," I wrote in my notes. On a classic James Taylor track, "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight," the sound of the voice to guitar and bongo accompaniment was simply lovely. Everything was so realistic sounding and smooth with the HD 800s that I no longer wished to listen to their predecessors.

The final choice was mine: one of my latest Records-to-Die-For, Richard Strauss' Alpine Symphony on a live SACD from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Mariss Jansons. The symphony begins very softly, with various horns playing parallel lines toward the very bottom of the range. Slowly other instruments enter, leading to a glorious vibrant climax as the sun first blazes over the horizon at dawn.

I cannot begin to tell you how thrilling the experience was. The sense of tension as the orchestra built gripped me far more than anything I have previously heard on high-end loudspeakers with state-of-the-art cabling. Without a hint of distortion or effort, the HD 800 seamlessly swelled from hushed tones to a huge, blazing triple forte. There was no question that 110 or so instruments were all going full blast. And this, mind you, was through the Benchmark DAC1 USB, which is not my favorite.

Had another group of folks not been chomping at the bit, I would have gladly played all 45 minutes of the symphony. When I left, the young owner of a new headphone site who had shared the demo with me was so blown away that he wrote down the name of the recording so he would be sure to get a copy. Whoever gets to review these headphones for Stereophile is going to have a ball. The Sennheiser HD 800s are a must-hear musical revelation.

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Noise Begone! Posted Sun Jan 11, 2009, 9:13 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus

Sam Laufer of Laufer Teknik has become the US manufacturer and distributor of Bybee Wire and the distributor of the Bybee Power Purifier ($4500) that is manufactured by Transparent. Here he's pictured holding the new Bybee wire, which contains the equivalent of three Bybee Golden Goddess Speaker Bullets. While I haven't tried the wire, I have two sets of Bullets on each of my reference speaker inputs, and am continually startled by their ability to clarify and refine low-level bass detail. I never, ever thought I could get this much bass clarity from my speakers, especially from closely spaced, multiple parallel lines of double basses and cellos.

Jack Bybee's technology is said to allow the Power Purifier to significantly lower the noise floor to produce a very natural sound. No current limiting is involved, so dynamics are not compromised.

"You retain all the leading edge of transients and natural sound of the original voices and instruments," Sam told me over lunch. The Power Purifier rectifies the dispersive delay that messes with the timing of different signal frequencies by placing a carbon nanotube and other metals in the signal path. It is also claimed to reduce 1/F noise, clarifying sound and the leading edge of transients by further reducing timing delays.

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520 Flavors and Counting Posted Sun Jan 11, 2009, 9:10 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus

"We are your one-stop shop for cables and tweaks," proclaimed Joseph Cohen of The Lotus Group, while leading me through two rooms filled products. Even the new products took up two pages of notes. Through it all, I remained extremely jealous of legendary mastering engineer Steve Hoffman, who had settled onto a couch in front of the fabulous Feastrex $55,000/pair speakers, and was blissfully tapping his foot to the extremely realistic, full-range sound of a jazz combo playing back on a A Feastrex modified EMT studio type CD player with outboard line transformer.

Not to say that the tweaks weren't fascinating. But after two days of exploring cables and tweaks while music ranging from the sublime (as in this room) to the godawful was blaring in the background, I was longing to join Steve in grooving with the music.

Joe, meanwhile, was getting his kicks showing off the high-priced Audio Replas line from Japan. "This company is pretty much over the top in everything they do," he uttered while showing me the company's 4 lb metal housing for outlets. Said to achieve ultimate vibration isolation, they cost $850 retail, which could set up quite a reverberation all its own. Audio Replas' copper-alloy outlet holder will set you back an additional $1450.

A company named fo.Q (I know, I know...) offers a host of far more reasonably priced damping materials that can be used for earphones, headphones, cellular phones, components, speaker cables, etc. $27.50 is a price for one of the items. There's even a turntable mat. Of course, if you want something state-of-the-art, do check out Audio Replas' 4m thick quartz turntable mat and matching record weight. Although costing over $6000, Joe reports that they are especially effective on acrylic platters—heads up, Mikey Fremer—and "completely transformative on the SME-20."

Joe's own company, PranaWire, has a new 4-gauge power cable for $3750. Everything is hand-made. Given some very positive recommendations from people I trust, I've been eager to try some PranaWire in my system for some time.

Oyaide's Tunami GPX-R uses beryllium copper that is platinum/palladium-plated. They also have a new Focus 1, 110 ohm XLR connector that features a bayonet release. The AR-910, made from 5Ns silver, costs $800.

Acoustic Revive has also improved its RD-3 CD demagnetizer. The company's RL-30 MK III LP demagnetizer features negative ion technology.

I hope I've got this all straight, which is not what I can say about the state of my mind at the end of a very long CES day. Joe Cohen is a fabulous guy with music in his heart. Although not all of his latest products are yet on display on his website, do check out www.lotusgroupusa.com.

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The Ferrari and Rolls Royce of Cables? Posted Sun Jan 11, 2009, 2:50 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus

Somewhere in the maze of air-walled convention cells in the Sands, I stumbled upon PSC Audio's Pure Silver Connection cable. Handmade in Perth, Australia using the finest, purest Australian silver one can find—6Ns, or 99.99997% pure—each cable receives three to six annealing heating and cooling treatments (without cryogenically freezing) to increase the length of silver crystals, thereby increasing conductivity by 20% over untreated silver.

Way back in 1999 or so, Larry Greenhill reviewed one of the company's handmade silver-alloy cables. Then, the line was small. Now there are over 100 models and 230 prototypes. Each cable is custom-tailored to a client's individual needs, with different technology employed for left and right channels. While entry-level handmade cables are priced up to $1000, the company's Super Hi-end Silver Gold Stella MK2 can cost up to $60,000 for a pair of interconnects. Gosh, would I love to hear a few pairs of these in my system. I could always renegotiate the mortgage our house, and then use the cables I purchased to hang myself before the spouse found out what I'd done.

After some years without a US distributor, PSC Audio is just starting to become available here via Jin Woo Kim's Bono Audio of southern California Otherwise, PSC Audio's main market remains Australia, Korea, and Europe.

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Verity's Finn Posted Sun Jan 11, 2009, 2:39 PM ET
By John Atkinson

Montreal-based company Verity has been slowly building a reputation for sound quality with its unique speakers, which combine a conventional head-unit on-top a woofer module that, unusually, mounts the drivers on its rear. CES saw the launch of two new models, the Leonore ($15,995/pair) and Finn ($5995/pair). Both speakers offer high sensitivities in the low 90s, and while the Leonore produced an impressive sound from Keith Jarrett's Live at Carnegie Hall CD powered by Nagra's forthcoming MSA stereo amp that Wes Phillips blogged about earlier, I was also impressed by the more affordable, one-box Finn, which was demmed with Nagra's PMA "pyramid" amps. The rest of the system included a Basis Debut turntable and Vector 4 tonearm, Nagra PLL preamp and Nagra's new battery-powered BPS phono stage, which I am sure Mikey Fremer will be reviewing in the near future.

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It's Good to be the King Posted Sun Jan 11, 2009, 2:28 PM ET
By John Atkinson

I had been impressed by the Prince V2 speakers from Hansen Audio, when Wes Phillips reviewed it for Stereophile a few months back. (Mikey Fremer has written a follow-up for our forthcoming March 2009 issue.) But the 2009 CES was my first chance to hear the Canadian manufacturer's top-line King V2 speaker ($89,000/pair). Powered by CAT amplification, with Stealth cables, the LP of Louis Armstrong's classic performance of "St. James Infirmary" produced a big sweep of sound, with superbly natural tonalities and extended lows, though you could also hear that Hansen's Wes Bender had played this LP a few too many times over the decades!

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Sonic Beauty Posted Sun Jan 11, 2009, 2:16 PM ET
By John Atkinson

Wes Phillips gave me the tip. "You must check out the Sonicweld room. Their active Pulserod system uses the DEQX digital crossover." So I checked it out. Comprising two 4'-tall Pulserod towers and two Subpulse subwoofers, the system costs $110,000 but includes all amplification—three 200W class-D ICE modules for the upper-range drivers in each tower and a1.1kW class-D amp for each 15" subwoofer—the crossover module, cables, and even a remote control.

The enclosures are machined from aluminum, with stainless steel damper plates, and the driver array includes six small midrange dome units in a vertical array crossing over to a single 1" tweeter at 5.5kHz. As well as the three 4" woofers you can see on the front panel, there are another three on the rear to give bipolar disperion down to the tower's limit of 65Hz.

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Lovely Loiminchay Posted Sun Jan 11, 2009, 2:07 PM ET
By John Atkinson

The name "Loiminchay" comes from a line of high-end pens, I am told, and the prices of the superbly finished Loiminchay speakers are also high-end, the three-way Chagall pictured here coming in at $48,500/pair. But combining a 30mm diamond tweeter with ceramic-cone midrange and LF units in two multi-layer Birch-ply enclosures with a concrete plinth, the Chagall produced smooth, extended sound driven by a Bel Canto class-D power amp and a Nagra CD player.

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Sweet-sounding Amphions Posted Sun Jan 11, 2009, 1:50 PM ET
By John Atkinson

Perhaps it was the ridiculously expensive 20Wpc Lars tube amplifiers that Wes Phillips blogged about yesterday, but the modest-looking Prio 620 speakers (price starting at $5750/pair) from Finnish manufacturer Amphion, sounded both sweet and powerful on a track from bassist Brian Bromberg. The titanium-dome tweeter is loaded with Amphion's proprietary waveguide, which matches its dispersion above the low 1.2kHz crossover frequency to that of the twin 6.5" paper-cone woofers.

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