Amphion Argon 3LS Tower Speakers: $3500 (White or Black, $4300 Walnut) (38 1/8h, 7 5/8w, 12d, 8 ohms, 50 lbs, 85 dB SPL) Suppose you would like a beautiful sounding diminutive tower. That… would be the Amphion Argon 3LS. It is made in Finland in Amphion’s factory. It isn’t a generic badged effort from Asia. If you’re after a very serious loudspeaker in a small tower form factor, do not pass up Argon 3LS! At about 38” tall and 7 ½ wide, this Amphion doesn’t have a big footprint. Yet it casts a massive soundstage, with impressive width and depth.
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Archives for Newsletters
07.2021
KLH Model 5 $2000 Per Pair: Price Includes Risers Walnut or Mahogany Finishes (34.25h on riser, 13.73w, 13d, 52 lbs, 6 ohms, 90.5 dB) A new KLH-5 has just been introduced to the market. What is different about KLH-5 vs a zillion other speakers? First of all, it uses a SEALED cabinet- there’s no port. This helps tighten the bass. It doesn’t have the FAT sound most speakers have. If you prefer bass definition to thud, consider Model 5. A sealed speaker has “air spring” within the cabinet. The drivers have to be solid to behave properly under this pressure
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06.2021
Bryston Middle T: $6870 Per Pair (39.4h, 10.4w, 16.3d, 81 lbs, 88 dB SPL, 20 Year Warranty!) Who would be a candidate to buy the Bryston Middle T speakers? How about… someone who wants large and powerful sound without adding subs? How about … someone who wants reference level size and scale but doesn’t have room for a monster tower? There are middle linebackers, and then there are Nitschke and Butkus who broke the mold. Middle T falls into that category! Middle T is a great sounding speaker regardless of size. The bullet point not to miss here is that
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05.2021
Bryston BR-20 Preamp/DAC $6000 Bryston announced in the spring of 2020 that it would be coming out with a new, state of the art Preamp/DAC. Well… that was when C19 was ramping up and, to make a long story short, it has taken over a year, instead of a couple months, to deliver on the promise. But it’s been worth the wait! BR-20 is a stunningly immediate and transparent sounding preamp- that just happens to have a state of the art DAC on board too! The Bryston BDA-3 DAC sells alone for $3800. It has been revered throughout the audio
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04.2021
Klipsch Forte IV
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03.2021
Falcon Ram 20 $2700 Per Pair (17h, 9w, 10.47d) Falcon Acoustics of England makes speakers that pretty well hit the stereotype of what we expect from English speakers. There’s nothin’ wrong with that! In England, people generally don’t have large rooms. I have visited vendors there and it’s amazing how over a thousand people can live in an apartment building the size of the Titanic. We Americans are spoiled by the space and privacy we have. The Brits want speakers with rich sound from a small profile. They need to sound full without playing loud. Falcon, founded in 1972, hits
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02.2021
Hot off the presses from Sweden are the gorgeous sounding Moon River Integrated amps.
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01.2021
McIntosh XR-100 Speakers, $10,000 Per Pair (Red Walnut Gloss, Piano Black Gloss, Pear Maple: 51h, 8w, 18.5d, 69 lbs, 87dB SPL) McIntosh is known first and foremost for its world class power amps. They make so many variations that even we dealers can’t keep them all straight! Next in line, Mac is known for magnificent matching preamps, integrated amps and CD players/transports. This brings us to SPEAKERS. Yep, just in are the SLEEK, super impressive XR-100s. Ours are finished in a stunningly gorgeous Gloss Red Walnut. Mac wanted these speakers to fit into a normal living room. They’re only 8”
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12.2020
Leak Audio Leak is an iconic British brand of audio gear, founded 1934. Leak has introduced a short line of modern gear, in vintage clothing. You can use Leak with its lovely real walnut cabinet. Or, remove the cabinet for a classic STEEL look. Either way, you’re back in the 70s with contemporary performance! We get calls every week looking for vintage gear. The problem, dear reader, is the vast majority of old gear wasn’t that great to begin with and flat out doesn’t work 40-50 years later. Please consider Leak. It will give you the iconic look you’ll love,
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11.2020
NAD M-33 $5000: 200×2 Integrated Amp With Built In Streamer NAD has been touting its new M-33 Integrated Amp. It’s now here and I can tell you it DOES live up to NAD’s BODACIOUS claims! M-33 can be the heart of an elaborate system, it can also be a “just add speakers” system- because of its on board streamer. The streamer is a higher end version of NAD’s Bluesound platform. It has full MQA decoding! M-33 features NAD’s version of the new Eigentakt amplifier design. In short, Eigentakt is impedance invariant and the lowest distortion amplifying design you can measure.
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