Helsinki HifiExpo 2011, novelties
This part of the show report presents some new products, and starts with Mummy. The question is about the Polish horn-specialist Auto-Tech, and their 98dB sensitive The Mummy loudspeaker: the OSWG-12 horn with a 1" driver and the 12" woofer is crossed at 1200 Hz. The claimed frequency response is 50-20000 Hz.
The importer Stars and Stripes Finland chose Ayon Spark Delta integrated with 6C33 power tubes on the deck as the amplifier. The out-of-the-box sound was slighly beaming but the potential for positive qualities was there. www.starsandstripes.fi
There have been rumours ... but now energy saving purity was there for everybody to marvel at: Pure Audio electronics from New-Zealand. Men behind the company, Gary Morrison and Ross Stevens, are better known for their contribution to Plinius Audio. The two mono blocks at the bottom of the rack (12900 euro) is said to deliver 65 Class-A watts. To save energy the amps fall back automatically to a low-power standby mode whenever not in use. Next up is Pure Audio Control preamplifier (7400 euro) with a high precision 32 step attenuator utilising non-magnetic Vishay-Dale resistors. The preamp has no input selector because input selection is automated. On top is Pure Vinyl Phono Preamplifier (3950 euro). The digital source was BAT VK-D5SE tube CD player, and the loudspeakers 15000 euro Elac FS 509 VX-Jet. www.mrhifi.fi
La Rosita from France is an interesting case. The question is about a relatively new (b. 2005) French company specialing in retrieving the best possible sound from a 16bit/44,1kHz CDs. For the purpose, the discs should first be ripped (iTunes lossless) onto the computer, and then wirelessly (Wi-Fi) transmitted to Rosita DACs. Wirelessly because the company believes that computers are the seat of all sorts of electromagnetic interference and should therefore ideally be physically decoupled from the rest of the system. On top is the entry-level Zeta DAC (850 euro), and underneath Beta DAC (4050 euro). For the latter the company promises no less than -160dB S/N-ratio. www.starsandstripes.fi
The new "Tesla" headphone by Bayerdynamic: T-70 (499e) falls between T-1 and T-50. Just like the T-50, it aims to incorporate, as much as possible, techniques from the flagship T-1, but also to better the performace of the T-50. www.highendstudio.com
DSPeaker presented an upgraded versions of its popular automatic subwoofer equalizer: Anti-Mode 8033S. It sports, for example, balanced connection.
Profel's Nuovo Gamba active subwoofer (on the floor) is one of the first commercial non-DSPeaker products that makes use of the DSPeaker's Antimode room equalizer.
M6 500i is Musical Fidelity's latest super integrated. It's a separate preamp combined with two 500W monoblock power amps in one chassis. The preamp input sockets are soldered directly to the main preamp PCB with wires keeping the signal paths very short. The dual mono power stage features twelve big bipolar transistors per channel with 200 amperes peak to peak power. www.mrhifi.fi
Atoll CD400 CD is a remote controlled, top loading CD player with PRO Drive transport, two 24bit/192kHz DA-converters (Burr Brown PCM1794), and differential output stages realized with discrete components. www.audioshop.fi
One of the most impressive preamps at Show: Audio Note Japan's Kondo KSL-M7 with Kondo's hand made silver-foil capacitors etc. The pre-amp uses tube rectification, two 5751 tubes for the phono-section, and two 5687 tubes for the line stage. www.soundfactor.fi
From Martin Logan the visitors could admire, but not listen, the new EM-ESL speaker with the ML XStat-panel. The price is less than 3000 euros. www.highendstudio.com
The classic Shelter cartridges by Mr. Ozawa (Fidelity Research) are again available. Here the 501 MkII MC shows up with Shelter 411 II MC step up -transformer. www.soundfactor.fi
