I love a good vibe.
I also love a place where listening to music is the point, extra especially so when real care has gone into making a good-sounding room. Even better, a great-sounding space filled with feasts for the eyes and ears. Adam Wexler and the crew at Brooklyn’s Resolution Audio/Video have built such a place on the waterfront in Red Hook.
The main event was held on Thursday night at Resolution A/V and featured a duet of debuts which included the DeVore Fidelity O/Bronze loudspeakers paired with a system mostly made up of gear from Nagra’s new Reference line. If you know anything about me, my likes and loves, you probably know that previous sentence fills me with delight.
The DeVore O/Bronze are essentially the production version of the limited edition DeVore Twenty speakers, limited to just 20 pair. Both the O/Bronze and Twenty are built on the O/96 as a foundation—speakers I’ve owned for years (review)—while incorporating a number of upgrades, some trickling down from the flagship DeVore O/Reference. Speaking of, I’ve heard the O/Reference a number of times…including at HIGH END Munich 2014 and more importantly in terms of actually hearing them, I spent the better part of a day with a prototype pair in Barn about which I’ll share they became one with the Barn more thoroughly than any speaker I’ve had here.
In standard hifi speak and from a satellite’s eye view, the O/Bronze are a 2-way design comprised of a 1″ silk dome tweeter, the same as used in the O/Reference, and a new 10″ woofer. But that’s hardly the story as the motor, magnet, and cast machined bronze horn all contribute to the tweeter’s improved performance as compared to the O/96. The woofer uses the same German paper cone as found in the O/96 but that about ends the sameness as the O/Bronze woofer employs a large Faraday ring that improves linearity, a copper ring mounted directly to the machined bronze phase plug that acts as a heat sink which decreases thermal compression (a good thing), and the chassis and rear ports are cast from the same bronze alloy improving stability while decreasing resonance as compared to the zinc chassis used in the O/96. All according to DeVore.
All to say goodness lies in the details, details most people who judge a speaker by its photo don’t have the first clue about yet they typically have the strongest opinions on performance without the need to listen, an amazing magic trick when it comes to fooling oneself.
Nagra’s new Reference line is comprised of the Reference Amplifier, Reference Preamplifier, Reference DAC, Reference Turntable, Reference Anniversary Turntable, and the Reference MC Cartridge. A Nagra Classic Phono Preamplifier was in use along with cables from Transparent Audio to send music through the DeVore O/Bronze out into us.
There’s too much to tell about the new Nagra Reference line so I encourage a visit to the website for a deeper dive. In brief, the Amplifier operates in Class A up to 50 Watts when A/B takes over (specifications are coming) and in an interesting twist on speaker matching, the Reference Amp offers “Damping factor controlled outputs, A for deeper bass and B for tight bass to match your speakers / room”.
The Reference Preamplifier is offered in a two chassis version (as pictured) with separate power supply or with “Dual chassis power supplies, one dedicated to the audio signal section and one dedicated to all of the controls and relay switching.” Of course these reference components are based on previous Nagra designs from a company with history dating back to 1951 when they introduced the first portable audio recorder, the Nagra I.
The Nagra Reference Anniversary Limited Edition Turntable, offered in an edition limited to 70 units, is a beautiful slab of Swiss engineering in the service of music. Designed as a system, the Reference Anniversary turntable includes a 10.5” tonearm. The Reference MC Cartridge is Nagra’s first, where a “stiff ruby cantilever is mated to a high strength titanium structure featuring a DLC (diamond-like carbon) coating” with a Fritz Gyger S stylus profile. The cartridge body is made from EXIUM® AM, “a non-ferrous alloy called…the result of a collaboration between the CNES (the French equivalent of NASA), the Ecole de Mines de Paris and the French firm LBI Foundries.” EXIUM® AM is also used in the Reference Anniversary turntable’s platter.
A few years back I had the opportunity to spend the better part of the day with John DeVore and an O/Bronze prototype in Barn, I’ve also heard the DeVore Twenty speakers on a number of occasions including at Axpona 2024, and as you know, I own the O/96 and have done for years. All of which gives me some foundation to help bolster my listening impressions from this system at Resolution A/V.
Have you ever experienced a hifi that produces music that sounds and feels to be one with the room? As if the music and room are breathing together and every last bit of music energy is part of the air so we’re not only hearing but breathing in that music energy? I am happy to share that this kind of oneness is something I’ve experienced in Barn and it was this kind of perfect union between system, music, and room that I breathed in Thursday night at Resolution A/V. It’s the kind of music-driven experience that makes other concerns dissipate into that rarefied electrified music-air.
And while this may sound strange, it does to me, soon after sitting in for a listen I felt the very real sensation that I knew aspects of this sound, that I remembered somewhere deep inside some of the qualities the O/Bronze bring to music that the O/96 don’t. Weird, right? Part of this difference has to do with the O/Bronze’s ability to cut a clearer sound image that is endowed with greater clarity and energy all adding up to deeper music involvement. For me. Between you and me, I’ll be digging deeper into this relationship when I review the O/Bronze. That’s a when, not an if.
Nagra’s René Laflamme, John DeVore, and Scott Haggart from Resolution all took turns spinning records which included selections from Tom Waits, Nala Sinephro’s exquisite Endlessness, Stravinsky, Led Zeppelin, and a fabulous single mic recording by René of a classical trio consisting of accordion, double bass, and violin, among others. This system in this space worked as one music-making machine no matter the music. Effortless, powerful, seamless. Lovely. And if you’re looking for a star of this show, that star was everything.
I also grabbed some private time listening to the Office System which featured the DeVore Super Nines with a stack of Nagra gear, this time all digital using Nagra’s Tube DAC and Streamer with Roon in control. A pair of Nagra Classic Stereo Amps took care of power paired with the I can’t not touch the Nagra Classic Preamp.
I cued up the latest album from Norway’s Smerz, Big city life, reveling in its big, bouncy, sexy fun which this system seemed designed for with ‘look ma, no sub!’ sound. I feel compelled to point out a price, a rarity, because the Super Nines cost $9900 a pair. I swear there are no zeros missing.
No event is an event without people and the vibe this night was warm, friendly, and relaxed with enjoyment being the key component. My favorite kind of event.
Bravo! all around.
Links
Resolution A/V website | Instagram
DeVore Fidelity website
Nagra Website
The Main System
Devore Fidelity O/Bronze Speakers: $30,000/pair
Nagra Reference Preamp w/single power supply: $95,000
Nagra Reference Mono Amplifiers: $125,000/pair
Nagra Reference Anniversary Limited Edition Turntable & Tonearm: $185,000
Nagra Reference Moving Coil Cartridge: $18,500
Nagra Classic Phono Preamplifier w/Classic Power Supply and Nagra VFS Isolation Base: $42,950
Transparent Audio Reference speaker cables, interconnect and power cables calibrated for the NAGRA system
Transparent Audio Reference Power Isolator: $8800
Vintage Nagra IV-S Reel to Reel Tape Player on an HRS Isolation Platform
Custom Box Furniture Heritage Stand With Box Furniture ISO platform
The Office System
Devore Fidelity Super Nines: $9990/pair
Nagra Classic Preamp: $19,500 + VFS base: $2,500
Nagra Tube DAC w/Classic Power Supply and VFS base combo: $48,500
Nagra Streamer: $5000
Pair of Nagra Classic Stereo Amps running unbridged + VFS base combo: $38,500/pair
Box Furniture Modular Rack: $3575
Shindo Mr T Power conditioner: $2995
AudioQuest Cable Package