Eikon may be a new company but its founder, Gayle Sanders, has been around the hifi block more than most, having co-founded electrostatic loudspeaker legends Martin Logan. The active Eikon Image1 loudspeakers include the outboard Eikontrol box ($25,000/system) and the combo is loaded with digital brains (DSP) so that negative room interaction (present in every room) is minimized. Color me intrigued.
Dali was showing their new active Callisto floorstander that comes with e the DALI Sound Hub ($5,750/system) that auto-senses the active input (think family-friendly) and transmits the signal wireless to the speakers (24/96).
The Aurender ACS10 server/streamer comes with your choice of internal storage capacity—8TB ($5,600), 16TB ($6,000), or 24TB ($7,500). When coupled with the…
….Acronova Nimbie USB 3.0 CD/DVD AutoLoader NB21-DVD ($569) with its 30 discs (closed) or 100 discs (with extension rods) capacity, you can rip your library while you listen to music since the Aurender takes care of everything else!
Bluesound was showing their new Generation 2i lineup, which you can see is still wallet-friendly.
This is exaSound‘s new PlayPoint DM Dual-Mono D/A Converter and Network Audio Server ($14,000) which can also handle preamplifier duties. I find that exaSound always get great sound at shows from relatively simple systems…
…Ike this one.
Distintive Stereo is the US distributor for the room-filling German Physiks loudspeakers.
I always enjoy the sound of music produced by Voxativ.
Jeff Catalano at High Water Sound has great taste in hearing, gear, and music. I always look forward to time spent in his company and in his rooms.
There was a lot buzz buzzing around Chord’s Hugo M-Scaler ($10,500) which “…uses Rob Watts’ (our Digital Design Consultant’s) unique filter technology, the most advanced in the world, to upscale standard 44.1kHz digital audio up to 705.6kHz (16x CD’s 44.1kHz native resolution), ready to be passed to a suitable DAC; Hugo M Scaler extends its upscaling performance to 768kHz (from 96kHz input data) for our dual-BNC-input DACs: DAVE, Qutest and the new Hugo TT 2.”
Mark Sossa’s Well-Pleased A|V is another room I look forward to visiting because his ‘hifi’ ears appear to be sympatico with mine and we’ve gotten into the habit of sharing music (sharing music is one of my favorite things to do).
I reviewed the AURALiC Vega Digital Audio Processor back in April 2013(!) and ended up living with it, very happily, for a number of years. Their new products, well new to me, have me wanting to hear more from them in-barn. Stay tuned.
