TAD, Vienna Acoustics, MBL, German Physiks

Also on the 34th floor was Andrew Jones’ beautiful, three-way, floorstanding TAD Reference One loudspeaker ($60k)–with its famous concentric beryllium midrange/tweeter and two ported 10-inch woven-Aramid-sandwich woofers–fed by Ayre electronics and one of The Tape Project 15ips, two-track tape players. The sound on the tapes was, needless to say, astonishing. On my own discs, the results were mixed–very good on Captain Luke’s voice and guitar on “Rainy Night in Georgia,” less impressive on Mark Cohn’s “Ghost Train,” where the bass seemed weak. Perhaps it was the arid Ayre electronics, of which I am no fan. Nonetheless, I know these speakers are special, and they need a review in TAS.

In an adjoining room, I heard the gorgeous, three-way, stand-mounted TAD Compact Reference One ($TBA) with Jones’ concentric beryllium mid/tweet and slot-loaded Aramid-sandwich woof. Though they’re not Magico Mini killers yet (they’re still in development), the sound they made driven by TAD’s own preamp and 300W Class A amp was big, robust, and beautiful, with very deep bass, very good dynamics, and very nice staging (in spite of the fact that the speakers were parked against a wall). Overall, the Compact R-1s were a smidgeon darker than life but still extremely attractive. I’ll be waiting for them with open ears and arms, when Jones deems them ready for review.

On to the 35th floor, where Sumiko debuted the Vienna Acoustics Klimt Series “The Music” ($25k), a statement-level three-way with a coaxially mounted tweet on a flat polymer/glass-fiber cone that together play from 150Hz to 20kHz, with the low bass handled by three woofs. Though the bass was overblown on Marc Cohn’s “Ghost Train” (perhaps a room resonance), the sound was otherwise excellent. Detail here was extremely high, with exceptional resolution of fingerwork on Guitar Gabriel’s guitar (the sound of fingers sliding on strings was astonishingly present) and a warm, sweet tonal balance.

From the 35th floor I headed down to the Venetian Meeting Rooms in the Sands Expo and Convention center, where I heard the most enigmatic speaker of the show–the omnidirectional MBL 101 Extreme ($180k!). Those of you who remember my CES report from last year will recall how disappointed I was with this flagship from MBL’s Wolfgang Meletzky.

This year, though ultimately also disappointing, was different. I can honestly say that no other speaker at CES reproduced Marc Cohn’s “Ghost Train” with more three-dimensionality, more body and sock, more sheer density of tone color (Lord, you should have heard that slide guitar!), more sheer exciting realism than the Extreme. And yet, on other music the speaker was bright and shrill and confused-sounding.

Part of the problem was the horrible room, which had what looked like forty-foot-high ceilings–a veritable echo chamber. Part of the problem was poor setup (even little things, like the fact the channels were reversed, weren’t taken care of). And part of the problem was the volume level that MBL insists on playing music at. I understand, from experience, why MBL plays loud–the Radialstrahlers sound better loud, particularly in the bass.

But loud is one thing; deafening is another. And deafening is where the volume pot was generally set. This won’t do, not for a $180k speaker driven by half-a-million dollars worth of electronics. MBL really needs to get its act together with these babies, because they just might be great. In fact, they were great on the Cohn disc. So…Best of Show? Worst of Show? Probably, a little of each, though more, alas, of the latter.

I’ll end this report with another speaker that suffered from terrible room conditions (it, too, was parked in a Venetian Meeting Room echo chamber with forty-foot ceilings)–the German Physiks Carbon Mk IV ($39k), a “bending wave”-driver (like a neo-Walsh driver) loudspeaker that uses a carbon-fiber cone and a carbon-fiber enclosure. To be honest, I didn’t really come to hear the German Physiks speaker but the Continuum Criterion turntable with Copperhead arm that had been so disappointing at last year’s show (and was not overly impressive in various rooms at this year’s).

With an LP from Acoustic Sounds’ Chad Kassem–a Speaker’s Corner EMI reissue of Maurizio Pollini playing Chopin’s First Piano Concerto–spinning on the Criterion, I sat down to listen, not expecting much. Guess what? In spite of the terrible room the German Physiks sounded quite respectably good, with very nice detail on string choirs, good depth and separation, excellent piano tone and imaging, and a marked liveliness without aggression. This was much better than the German Physiks and the Continuum had sounded in the past (or than the ’table/arm sounded elsewhere at the show). I think, next year, these guys ought to do themselves a favor and find a smaller, less daunting room to show in. If the speakers and ’table could sound this good in awful conditions, imagine how both might sound in better ones.

Next: Jonathan Valin’s Best of Show

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