By Chris Martens

Those familiar with Galibier Design’s excellent but expensive Stelvio and Gavia turntables will be pleasantly surprised to learn that the firm’s new Serac turntable will sell for under $4k—way under (as in $3250).

Interestingly, this doesn’t mean the firm has cut many significant corners in producing its new entry-level model; in fact, the Serac features the same basic motor and main bearing assemblies used in the bigger Galibier ‘tables.

Cost savings were instead realized by giving the Serac an MDF plinth and simplified platter rather than the milled aluminum plinths and exotic platters used in Galibier’s upscale models.

At RMAF, Galibier debuted the Serac with an also new (more…)

By Chris Martens
When it comes to building accurate and highly musical mini-monitor loudspeakers, few firms can claim deeper roots than the British firm Spendor, one of a handful of specialty firms licensed to build the BBC’s now-classic LS3/5a small monitors.

Over the years, the LS3/5a has been superceded by newer, and some would say better, designs such as the S3/5R small monitor that Spendor introduced at RMAF 2007.

The S3/5R replaces Spendor’s critically acclaimed S3/5 speaker and offers a host of updates including a new (more…)

By Jacob Heilbrunn
Two mini-monitors produced fabulous sound–the Usher Be-718 and the new MBL 121 Radial-Strahler.

The Usher’s punched way above their weight, as the boxing term has it.

How on earth they could fill up a large room with that much sound remains a mystery to me. The crescendos reached true (more…)

By Robert Harley
The most transparent and lifelike sound I heard at this—or perhaps any—show was produced by the insanely exotic Symposium Acoustics Panorama loudspeakers driven by Emotive Audio electronics and augmented by Symposium’s vibration-control products.

The giant ribbon speakers look like props from a 1950’s science-fiction movie, but the sound they produced was utterly transparent, effortless, and spookily real-sounding. The system seemed to disappear in way that you have to hear to believe.

Despite the exotic technology, the loudspeakers are priced at $60k.

By Jacob Heilbrunn
Symposium’s Peter Bizlewicz was demoing his planar Panorama loudspeaker. I can’t claim credit for finding this speaker.

Jonathan Valin excitedly instructed me that I had to hear it. He was right.

Its fit ‘n finish need a little work, but it sounded superlative. Few planars, which are notorious for their inefficiency, can produce that vivid and pellucid a sound.

Bizlewicz’s did. The hand-tweaked crossover is a (more…)