Aaudio Imports was playing the Acapella Audio Arts’ High Violoncello II MKII speakers powered by the Einstein tube electronics. What else can be said they were simply amazing.
Analysis Audio were playing their Omega planar and ribbon speakers. The Omega is the middle of their line, but these big planars were sounding so musical. I always enjoy their room.
GTT Audio’s room was playing the big YG Acoustic Anat III Pro. Signature speakers. They were being powered by Tenor Audio’s 350M monoblock amplifiers, their line stage, and the source was Solution’s S40 CD/SACD player. I have to admit I have never been blown away by YG Acoustic speakers, but this time was different. This combination was very transparent, unbelievably dynamic, yet with excellent harmonics. No, I don’t think they are the world’s best speakers, but they were pretty darn good.
High Water Sound’s room is always one of my favorites, but this year’s room was really something special. It featured the big and beautiful Cessaro Horn Acoustics Affascinate I SE loudspeakers. One of the things I always love about Jeffrey Catalano’s rooms are the vinyl setups. This year he was playing two turntables. One was the TW-Acustic Limited/10.5 turntable and a Thales TTT turntable. Amplification came from the Tron Telstar Ultimate 211 amplifier and a Tron Seven GT Line preamp This system allowed the Cessaro Horn Acoustics Affascinate I SE speakers to be one of the best sounding speakers at the show.
Nola was playing their Baby Grand Reference Series II. They have four of the incredible Raven ribbon tweeters crossed over to four of their proprietary 4.5″ midrange units, and two 9″ magnesium-cone woofers. These incredible speakers were powered by Audio Research Reference 250 amplifiers.
Teresonic was the one room that had a product that fell into both the big and small packages. Their Ingenium XR speakers are six feet of beautiful curves and cabinet work that looks like a fine cello or bass, and are over 100 dB efficient. Then there are the little Magnus A55 monitors with their beautiful rounded fronts and the same cabinet work. They are only 15 inches tall and still 98 dB efficient. If you want to read more about them, I have reviewed both of these speakers and I should mention I also own them both. By the way the speakers were being driven by Teresonic’s own Reference 2a3 Limited Edition Integrated Amplifier.
VTL premiered their new Siegfried Series II Reference monoblock power amplifiers at the 2011 RMAF. Speakers were the TAD Reference One. Yes, the total system they were playing was over $500,000 but it sounded great.
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