Now On Display! Klipschorn AK-6, $15,000 Per Pair
Marantz Reference Series
Marantz Reference Series products have always been among the finest products you can buy.
They have been designed by Marantz’s renowned engineer, Ken Ishiwata. Ken has just created a new integrated amp and SACD/CD player dubbed KI RUBY series to mark his 40th anniversary with Marantz.
Ken is all about making great sound with a zero noise floor. The Marantz Ref gear sounds great with any speakers, but is a conspicuously strong choice with high efficiency speakers (like Klipsch) that are quite revealing. High efficiency speakers show reveal a high noise floor in electronics. Marantz Reference passes with flying colors!
Marantz PM-KI Ruby Integrated Amp: $4000 (100×2)
If you don’t look past the wattage rating of 100×2 for $4k, you’ll miss the boat. For example, this guy uses two power supplies, one for preamp section and one for the amp section.
It’s an all analog piece that supports MM&MC. With unique phono circuit and HDAM technology,
an Ishiwata classic design, the refinement of the Ref Series is as good as the best gear available!
Its sonic character is uber quiet, clean and controlled. It’s not fat in the bass or harsh on top. In other words, it’s quite a chameleon for your sources and controls your speakers like a vice grip.
Hence not only is the integrated great for high efficiency speakers, it is a GREAT choice for
speakers that sound a bit murky or sluggish. Take ALL speakers with a pile of drivers in them
and a complex crossover. They benefit from loads of current and control. PM-KI Ruby will tighten up the stand up bass or lower register of a piano- instead of letting it flap around in the breeze!
Marantz SA-KI Ruby SACD/CD Player: $4000
The Ruby disc player uses Ken’s Marantz Music Mastering Technology, previously only available on SA-10 ($7000)! It doesn’t use a DAC chip, which would impart a particular signature of sound.
MMM upsamples to DSD and runs analog out to your preamp WITHOUT the use of a DAC chip, that virtually everyone else uses. This design, combined with a hundred other sage parts’ choices, puts the Ruby disc player in the highest echelon of disc players on the market!
The music takes on more “immediacy.” Tracks sound more like master tapes than produced
commercial albums. Only SA-10 does it better, and it runs $7k.
Elac Debut Series 2.0 Speakers
Debut 2 series B6.2
The sonic improvement is, the 2.0’s are cleaner in the mids and bass in particular. The silk tweeter is
a bit more extended on top as well. We are delighted by ANY of improvement at this scurrilously low price range!
B-5.2 $250 Per Pair (13.43h, 7.09w, 9,21d)
5 ¼ Woven Fiber woof, 1” Silk Dome tweet
B-6.2 $300 Per Pair (14.76h, 7.69w, 10.55d)
6.5” Woven Fiber woof, 1” Silk Dome tweet
F-5.2 $600 Per Pair (40h, 7.09w, 9,21d)
Three 5 1/4” Woven Fiber woofs, 1” Silk Dome tweet
F-5.2 is configured as a legit 3-way with sophisticated crossover network.
C-5.2 Center $200 Each (7.09h, 21.25w, 8.62d)
Two 5 1/4” Woven Fiber woofs, 1” Silk Dome tweet
George Szell: “Mr Cyclops”
Iconic Canadian pianist, Glenn Gould, was no fan of Cleveland’s conductor George Szell. Neither was “anyone” else.
Szell was known for being a tyrannical bully. In his first year with the orchestra he fired 12 of the 94 members of the symphony. Szell literally sneered at his charges through Coke bottle glasses. Gould gave him the above “title” which other musicians felt- was right on the money!