CES And T.H.E. Show 2013

Kingsound KS-10 Speakers with P-100 Amplifiers

Kingsound Emperor Headphones/Tube Preamplifer combo

FAST: Kingsound at THE Show

It doesn’t get much faster in terms of listening than an electrostatic speaker. At CES, King’s Audio, the Hong Kong manufacturer of Kingsound products, showed the vaunted KS-10 ($30K), the three-way version of the King III ($12K) which I own and reviewed. New on the scene were complementary electronics; the PP-10 ($4K) Tube Preamplifier and P-100 Tube Amplifier ($6K). The P-100 clocks in at 120wpc, while the smaller P-80 ($4K) is at 100wpc. The KS-10 was reminiscent of the larger Sound Lab speakers, and it had a preternatural ease and spaciousness. Making use of a corner of their space a table displayed the surprisingly good sounding Emperor headphones and tube preamplifier ($3K).

I couldn’t leave the show without a particular souvenir. I found the Kingsound Guitar speaker ($1.5K) to my liking. It shipped without incident from the show and now resides in my family room system! This model is definitely a lifestyle choice, obviously a statement in deco sound, not state-of-the-art sound. But it guilds a room with that effortless, spacious electrostatic speaker sound, and what a fantastic merging of décor and music!

The King III showed in the Performance Devices room, where the speaker was supported by the KR Audio P-130 Triode Stereo Line Level Pre-Amplifier ($4,990) and the VA-910 Mono Block Ultra Linear Class AB1 Amplifiers ($18K/pr) at 160wpc. Clarity Cable supplied a loom of Vortex Power Cords ($750) and Organic RCA Interconnects and Speaker Cables at approx. $6,100 total for the system. The Clarity Cable room itself used the Prince III with the KR Audio Kronzilla DXL Monoblock Amplifiers ($35,150) itself achieving parity in terms of sound quality on a slightly smaller scale.

YG Acoustics Sonja Speakers driven by D’Agostino Momentum Monos

Raised back of YG Acoustics Sonja Speakers

FALSE START: YG Acoustics at THE Show

One of the most bewildering moments of either show happened when I sat down in front of the YG Acoustics Sonja 1.3 Speakers ($106,800). The system was comprised of Scheu Analog Das Laufwerk 1 Turntable ($8,330), 12 Tacco Tonearm ($4,995) and Ruby 3 Cartridge ($2,950) for vinyl, and Aurender Digital Music Server ($6,990) feeding dCS Scarlatti System 4-box ($80k) for digital. Veloce Audio LS-1 Linestage Preamplifier ($18K) and D’Agostino Momentum Monoblock Amplifiers ($55K/pr) were linked via a loom of Kubala-Sosna Elation! Cables ($85K).

You might think with all this firepower, totaling a cool $368,065, that the experience might elevate the senses. Elevate it did – the soundstage right over my head, and I am not short at nearly 2m tall! I was stymied by the P.A. system-like height of the speaker’s top module. The vertical separation between the Mid/Treble and bass was unfathomable; the listener up close had no chance to hear a well balanced presentation.  I stood to hear the speaker in better form. The elevation of the M/T module was so extreme for the seating position that the spikes in the front had been removed and left in the back so as to give the speaker a forward lean, but this did little to ameliorate the sense of everything going on well above my head, as though the performers were dangling from the ceiling. The system had many attributes of superb sound including ultra-refined definition and dynamic gusto, but it was difficult to reconcile that with its unusual form that was presented in such a fashion.

PranaFidelity room

FAST: PranaFidelity at THE Show

Once in a while stepping into a manufacturer’s room can be an experience which transports me – in this particular case I was transported back in time to my childhood, as PranaFidelity’s Steven Norber was playing children’s songs on the display rig. It wasn’t a demo for a customer either; Steven was clearly enjoying defying stereotypes (pun!) by showing that all genres of music are fair game for system assessment. Even after days of flogging his gear he was nearly giddy with enjoyment of seeing the expressions on the faces of road-weary audiophiles as they struggled to integrate this bizarre demonstration.

Steven is not afraid to violate the unwritten rules of audiophilia; his demo music though pediatric in nature was of audiophile grade and did clearly reveal PranaFidelity’s components’ strengths. The Fifty90 Speakers, larger stand mounted two-ways with dual 6” woofers and a single 30mm soft dome tweeter, were every bit as impressive as the smaller Evolution Audio MMMicroOne which has gotten a lot of press. At $3,950 the Fifty90 is a thousand dollars more, but frankly, gives that much more in terms of performance. There may have been strong vectors of synergy at work with system components as the PranaFidelity Purna Preamplifier ($ to be announced), and Purna Amplifier ($8,950) joined a Kuzma Stabi Reference Turntable with 4Point Tonearm and Denon 103R Cartridge, as well as a PranaFidelity modded Pioneer PD-65 CD Player and Wyred4Sound DAC-2. Cabling was from a name unfamiliar to me, Audio Conductor based in Los Angeles.

One thing Steven did properly was set up the room and tune it well – the results showed. The Fifty90 had tight, tuneful bass and was convincing in reproduction of acoustic instruments on music such as Brian Bromberg’s My Bass. If I recall correctly, previously PranaFidelity had shown nearly fridge-sized speakers which didn’t move me particularly. But this demo was different, and I get the feeling that PranaFidelity, which is seeking dealers, is worth paying attention to.