CAS7 Richard Austen Reports, Part 5

PureAudioProject/Whammerdyne/Verastarr/Exogal

Entering Boardroom 3, I found my choice for “Best Industrial Design” in the Whammerdyne Truth 2a3 amplifier and Best Value in PureAudioProject loudspeakers. This is a large, 69lb $25,000 amplifier that puts out 4.2 watts per channel. Cables were handled by Verastarr cables leading to the very impressive PureAudioProject Quintet 15 Horn1, each speaker utilizes four 15-inch woofers and a horn tweeter. However, they have several different options for you to choose and prices start at $6,990.

“Best value” is a difficult thing to asses at a show, but for a larger room I felt the Quintet 15 horn has the potential to sound a lot better with higher-grade front end electronics. The amplifier easily had the power to drive these formidable loudspeakers and while quite large, the sound was both coherent and not bass heavy or boomy. I think there is a lot of value here, and for smaller rooms they have other less expensive options depending on the choice of tweeter. I enjoyed the clean sound and the high value price points. The speakers come with assembly required but I am told it is very easy to do. When you factor in the style, the ease of drive, the sound quality, and the physicality, these speakers sure are impressive. I’d like to get a smaller pair in for review. I only wish I spent more time here.

This part is on some of the rooms that I will be covering in less detail. For me, these rooms were a bit of a mixed bag either due to too many people in the room when I visited or had too much talking or surrounding noise for me to get a good sense of the sound quality. Some rooms also had several set-ups in the same room with sympathetic vibrations marring the sound to give good coverage. Otherwise, good speakers like Zu Audio and Sound Lab I couldn’t cover to the degree that I would have liked.

I did like the Margules Group set-up and I was pleased to see them bring the idea of the console back to the fore. It is a water-resistant scratch-resistant design that offers better than any console approach. For a space saving solution, I liked what I heard. Margules’s big Orpheeus speakers also sounded big and vibrant if slightly hard.