2012 TAVES Coverage

Worldwide Wholesales: Casta Speakers, Audion, JE Audio

Robert Neill, CEO of Worldwide Wholesale, always gives me a funny evil eye when I tell him how remarkably similar sounding the Casta Model C speakers are to my vintage JBL 4343, which is precisely why I like them so much. They are easily one of the nicest sounding pair of speakers at the show.

Priced at $28,000 the pair, the Casta is made entirely in Italy utilizing horn loaded midrange driver, tweeters and a 15” woofer, all hand built by the designer himself. Just like the vintage JBL and Altec Lansing speakers, all the drivers feature Alnico magnets.

For those of you, who like me, are into the organic seductiveness of vintage “Altec/JBL” horn loaded sound, but do not want to mess around rebuilding vintage speakers, the Casta is an excellent modern alternative.

Having been without a Canadian distributor for a couple of years, Worldwide Distribution is now also representing Audion of the U.K.

Burmester

The star of the TAVES show is none other than the $450,000 Burmester system featured in the Sovereign Grand Ballroom. The system consisted of the Reference MusicCentre 111 DAC/Server ($47,000), the Reference Line Preamp 077 ($40,000), four 911 Mk 3 Power Amps ($30,000 ea), and four B100 speakers ($90,000/pr).

The ballroom was not open to the public until Saturday, but the GTA Audiophile Club managed to sneak into it for a half hour private session on Friday.

How did it sound? If anyone was to tell you he was able to draw a comparison with any other system, he would be lying because very rarely would anyone have a room this big in a private residence. The sound was impressive, and for the lack of a better word, gigantic.

One thing I’ll tell you though, I liked the system so much that the Burmester CD player, Burmester PH100 Phono stage, 077 Preamp, and a pair of 911 Mk3 power amps has now been delivered to my house for a review. I will tell you my real impressions in 3 months’ time. Stay tuned !