SSI 2011 - Les revues de presse...
MAGAZINE AUDIO
Meilleur haut-parleur efficace:
Orangutan de DeVore Fidelity, 96db ($12,000 ).
Enceinte acoustique DeVore, modèle Orangutan
Rien comme tel pour tous les amplis de bas wattage, tubes ou transistors.
As-tu déjà entendu un Pass single ended à transistors? Ça prend ce type de haut-parleur pour les faire chanter.
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STEREOPHILE
SSI 2011
Wilson–VTL–Transparent–Beethoven
By John Atkinson • Posted: Apr 7, 2011
My best sound at the 2011 SSI? No doubt about it, it was the late Leonard Shure performing Beethoven's
Op.109 Piano Sonata courtesy of the immense VTL Siegfried tubed monoblocks driving even more immense Wilson Alexandria X2 loudspeaker via Transparent Audio cables in Coup de Foudre's large room on the
Hilton Bonaventure's mezzanine floor.
The Beethoven recording was made by Wilson's Peter McGrath (shown in the photo) in the 1970s
on his Mark Levinson ML-5 analog recorder using a spaced pair of B&K omnidirectional measurement microphones.
The transfer to 24-bit/88.2kHz WAV files had been carefully and lovingly done by Bruce Brown of Seattle-based
Puget Sound and will eventually be released as HDTracks downloads. Shure's performance is extraordinary,
with huge dynamic range; he makes the piano—a percussion instrument—sing;
his awesome technique makes the passage near the end of the work, where the left hand is playing rapid
arpeggios in the bass, the right hand in playing rocking chords in the midrange, and what could only be a third hand is picking out a melody in the treble, sound effortless. Art Dudley adds that for the most part, he was too overwhelmed by the music's beauty to write down much of anything, so he left it to me.
Shure took the listeners on a voyage of musical discovery that made further listening superfluous.
Fortunately, this was the last room I visited at SSI and the experience provided a fitting climax
to what had been a great Show.
Orange Men and Green Amps on Boxes
By Art Dudley • Posted: Apr 7, 2011
Let’s get right to it: The Coup de Foudre system comprising DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/96 loudspeakers ($12,000/pair),
Leben CS300XS integrated amplifier ($3795) and RS30EQ phono preamp ($2795),
Hommage T2 phono transformer ($4995),
EMT TSD-15 phono cartridge ($1800), Brinkmann Bardo I turntable with Origin Live Encounter arm
($7990 and $2000, respectively),
and Box Furniture 3S3 stand ($2300) was nothing less than wonderful:
easily in the show’s Top Five, and quite possibly the best of the bunch.
The star was the latest pre-production iteration of the O/96, a 96dB sensitive (geddit?)
loudspeaker that uses a 10" paper-cone woofer and a 1" silk-dome tweeter in a wide-faced (geddit?)
box with a birch-ply baffle and MDF everything else. Their presentation was solid, substantial, rich,
and colorful, with great touch, timing, and, above all, dynamics.
Flesh and blood? The system was like a day at the butcher shop—but everyone was smiling,
and there were no straw boaters.
The Coup de Foudre Party
By Robert Deutsch • Posted: Apr 7, 2011
On the evening of the first day of the show, John Atkinson, Art Dudley, and I attended a party at Coup de Foudre,
one of Montreal's premier high-end audio retailers. There was much to admire there,
not the least of which was listening to some of Peter McGrath’s hi-rez recordings on a system featuring
VTL MB185 tube monoblocks driving Wilson Sashas
and an Alpha DAC being fed USB data from Peter’s MacBook Pro via a Wavelength format converter.
Graeme Humfrey's Man-cave
By Robert Deutsch • Posted: Apr 7, 2011
What impressed me the most at the Coup de Foudre party was the recording studio that adjoins the retail store,
operated by CdF's co-owner, Graeme Humfrey, who is also a much-in-demand recording engineer.
His audio mixing room is filled to the brim with equipment, some of it the very latest, and some of it classics,
such as multiple Pultec equalizers that are valued for their sound quality.
Everyone was Buying Vinyl
By John Atkinson • Posted: Apr 5, 2011
Not just the public attendees made for the Aux 33 Tours room at SSI.
Seen here browsing the jazz LPs (in denim jacket and deshabillé hair) is Graeme Humfrey,
one of the proprietors of Montreal high-end retailer Coup de Foudre.
DeVore's Oscar
By Robert Deutsch • Posted: Apr 3, 2011
At the 2011 CES last January, DeVore Fidelity introduced the O/96 Oscar ($12,000/pair), t
he first of their Orangutan line, a high-sensitivity (96dB) floorstanding two-way speaker.
I thought the speakers sounded pleasant enough, but seemed to lack some of the clarity and specificity of imaging
that I've heard from other, lower-sensitivity DeVore speakers. However, the position of the speakers in the room was
far from optimal (often the case at shows), so I reserved judgment. Just as well: the speakers at SSI 2011,
driven by a Leben tubed integrated amplifier, sounded considerably better,
more like the other speakers from DeVore, but with the dynamic freedom that comes with high sensitivity.
April 2: The source matters A really big speaker in a hotel room, even a large one, is a recipe for disaster.
What can save it, beyond careful setup, is the right sources.
No one brought a speaker heavier or taller than the Wilson Alexandrias, which might not even have fit in a smaller room.
But Coup de Foudre, the Montreal store that sells Wilsons, also brought in the company's sales director, Peter McGrath. And Peter, shown here next to one of the speakers, is also a recording engineer, and likes to come down with a MacBook filled with his recent recordings ("the digits are still wet on this one," he said of a totally luscious string quartet).
He had a number of other gems, including a performance of Liszt's Dante Sonata, and a segment from Puccini's Turandot.
Yes, including the crowd pleaser, Nessun Dorma.
Does the source matter? Oh, you bet!
Which leads naturally into a discussion we had this morning with a designer whose loudspeaker had been "attacked"
(his word) on this very blog. In fact the speaker had not been criticized at all,
beyond a comment about the Wife Acceptance Factor.
What had been sharply criticized was...the source. It was a turntable that had been modified
in a way that we consider irrational.
Are we wrong about the turntable? If we are, why doesn't it sound better than it does?
A designer who comes to a show has two responsibilities. (a) To listen to his product with the best possible source
so that he can optimize its design. (b) To demonstrate to visitors that the product delivers the goods.
