The large, superb-sounding system in the High Fidelity Services room left me deeply impressed. The system was headlined by the debut of the Verity Audio Monsalvat speaker system with its included Pro-6 six-channel crossover ($675,000 total) and three of Verity Audio’s Monsalvat Amp-60 stereo amps ($58,000/each). Together with a TW-Acustic Raven phono preamplifier ($18,000), TW-Acustic Raven Black Knight turntable ($42,000) with debut Raven 12 and 10.5 tonearms ($11,500 total) and debut Ortofon MC Century cartridge ($12,000), Melco N1ZH MK1 music server ($4995), debut Signal Projects cables, Vibex power distribution, debut CAD GC-1 ground control unit, debut Symposium Pro amp stand, Vibex isolation feet, and SRA rack, the system cost a mere $1,115,405. Note that it was not the only system at RMAF in this price range.
Shock and awe numbers aside, the system threw a huge—I mean HUGE—soundstage on a 384/32 recording of Miles Davis and Quincy Jones’s Miles & Quincy Live at Montreux. Images were tremendous, and infused with believable body. Heard from the ideal spot in the center of the room’s second row of chairs, the sense of air and space around instruments was captivating.
From there we switched to a 16/44.1 file of music from Anouar Brahem’s The Astounding Eyes of Rita (ECM). Timbres were believable and fully fleshed out, and images solid and palpable. I would have liked more silence between the notes, but this may have been the fault of the “Red Book”-quality file or the recording itself.
When we switched to Lou Harrison’s Violin Concerto (24/48), sourced from my solid-state 256GB USB stick, the system’s ability to nail the timbre and decay of metallic percussion instruments was the best I’ve ever heard. “Space around percussion in the room, and the control of various instruments sounding at one, was absolute,” I wrote in my notes. “There is an extraordinary quality to the overtones and the way sound hang and decay in space. This system is like a microscope, exposing small differences between similar sounds.”
I have requested a Verity Audio Amp-60 stereo amplifier for review.
With the number of premieres to cover at RMAF much larger than three days’ worth of show hours, I had resolved to skip all booth displays, static or otherwise. But with Music Hall’s Leland Leard standing right before me as I navigated between rooms on the hotel’s lobby level, I stopped to chat about the new Music Hall MMF-9.3 Walnut turntable ($2695). Occupying one notch down from Music Hall’s top-of-the-line, the turntable comes with a Goldring Eroica LX low-output MC cartridge. For those who already own a cartridge of their liking, the MMF-9.3 Walnut can be had without the Goldring for $200 less.
“In my opinion, it sounds better because the plinth is a true Walnut veneer over MDF,” Leland declared. “Better,” in this case, means “better than the sound of the MMF-9.3 Black version ($2400).”
Leland also displayed Music Hall’s “really fucking good and too cheap for its quality” Connect phono cable ($100). Released after two years in development with “a well-known cable designer,” the cable includes “Grade 1” Canadian copper, and, according to Leland, “does a really good job with low voltage signals.”
In honor of the late speaker designer Arnie Nudell, who founded both Infinity Systems and Genesis Technologies, PS Audio showcased a system based around Arnie’s final prototype loudspeakers. Smaller than the Infinity IRS, the prototypes contain dual servo-controlled woofers, a mid-bass coupler, ribbon line-source midrange, and, for the top, a line-source arrangement of spiral ribbon tweeters. The speaker’s core design features will become the basis for a new line of Arnie Nudell loudspeakers from PS Audio, which will ideally debut toward the end of 2019.
With their focus on a single one-person sweet spot, and the need for a large room with listeners seated far field, the speaker found a less than ideal home in the long but somewhat narrow PS Audio suite. Nonetheless, playing either files or music downloaded from Qobuz, the latter played through a Mac mini equipped with Audirvana, I heard impressively clear and lively sound from a system that also included PS Audio’s DirectStream Memory Player ($5999) and DirectStream DAC ($5999), BHK Signature preamplifier ($5999) and Signature 300 mono amplifiers ($14,998/pair), two PS Audio P20 Power Plants ($9999/each), and a combination of NBS, Shunyata, and Synergistic Research cabling from Arnie’s own set-up. Playing my 24/192 file of the first movement of Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra presented the system with a challenge that left the lowest notes and passages of this demanding music sounding somewhat muffled and wooly. The depiction of spatial depth, however, was as excellent as the system’s transparency, and highs were quite fine. The presentation left me eager to hear PS Audio’s forthcoming Arnie Nudell loudspeakers.
“The Wilson Benesch Resolution speakers ($69,500/pair) need 500 hours to break-in and loosen up, and they have less than 100 hours on them.” Thus did AAudio’s Brian Ackerman alert me to the fact that what I was hearing was not a true representation of his system’s ultimate potential. I shall therefore limit my comments to saying that the system threw very large, clear images that left me with the sense that, when the system was fully up to snuff, it would be capable of delivering far more than what I heard.
Key components beyond the speakers themselves: Wilson Benesch Torus + Amp ($12,900), R1 Carbon Modular Hi-Fi rack ($25,500 as shown), and Carbon Plinth Medium ($3200); Ypsilon PST 100 MKII tube preamp ($37,000), Hyperion Mono amps ($93,000/pair), and DAC 1000 ($24,500); Aurender N10 music server ($8000); HB Cable Design PowerSlave Marble MKII power distributor ($16,500); and Stage III cabling.
Next up was a substantial system that was headlined by MartinLogan
Neolith loudspeakers ($80,000/pair) powered by a Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems
Progression preamp (with DAC) ($26,500) and the same Progression mono amplifiers ($38,000/pair) that I reviewed for Stereophile and use in my reference system. An Aurender N10 music server ($8000) was also in use. All power was treated by the new, smaller Stromtank S 2500 ($19,500), and cabling was Transparent.
I entered the room in the middle of a Stromtank demo. I had hardly gotten my bearings when the S 2500 was engaged, and images immediately became far more color-saturated and three-dimensional. Very, very impressive—it made me wish I had a spare $20,000 at hand. Instruments in Dire Straits’ “Ride Across the River,” played very loudly in DSD128, had lots of substance and depth, with great air around trumpets and a very neutral, convincing sound. Bass, however, was a mite muffled. On other recordings, I noted how well the system captured depth, weight, and the natural resonance of instruments in space. Had the sound been a little lower, or if days had more hours, I would have stayed longer.
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