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Stereophile/Jason Serinus CES 2010 Show Report

The Fabulous Acapella-Einstein Duo Posted Tue Jan 12, 2010, 3:37 PM ET
By Jason Victor Serinus

I have heard Acapella horn loudspeakers and Einstein electronics on other occasions, but they have never sounded as glorious as they did paired together in one of the Aaudio Imports room at CES 2010. I only wish Erick Lichte and John Atkinson had been present as I played John's 2008 recording of Cantus' While You Are Alive, which Erick produced. (Erick was also Cantus' Artistic Director at the time). The sound was big—huge, in fact—maximally transparent, and thanks to the Einstein electronics' euphonic presentation, absolutely luscious.

To test the system further, I played the first five or six minutes of one of my R2D4s, Mariss Jansson's recording of Richard Strauss' Alpine Symphony. So transparent was the presentation, I felt I could listen through the instruments to the back of the hall.

The images were also maximally colorful. At one point, a tuba blared out from the huge orchestra, sounding so absolutely right that I sat up and took notice. I also marveled at the absolute control in the lower octaves. The timpani were a mite underpowered—they're pretty dimly recorded to begin with—but they were certainly respectable.

Heard were the Acapella High Violoncello II full-range loudspeakers ($80,500/pair), abetted with an isolation platform, resonance controls, Reference LaMusika speaker cables ($25,000/pair), and High LaMusika power cords ($5700 for 2 meters). On the electronics end were Einstein's The Source balanced tube CD player ($18,400), The Tube MKII balanced tube preamp with remote ($18,400), and The Final Cut MK60 balanced OTL tube monoblocks ($34,900/pair). Additional interconnects and power cables were supplied by Stage III.

All in all, the Acapella-Einstein duo sounded fabulous. A metaphorical hats off to Volker Bohlmeier, Managing Director of Einstein (right), and Hermann Winters of Acapella (left), both of whom are pictured. You've done yourselves proud, gentlemen.

2009 Aaudio Imports Visit

Constantine Soo

As with most other industries, the high-end audio industry fell victim to the economic downturn. The preceding 18 months have witnessed all importers impacted by the recession, as some of them reprioritize their product lineups, while some others changed product lineups altogether. It has thus become a far more common, though no less daunting sight, to see brands changing hands from one distributor to the other during this period. If there is a silver lining in all this industrial upheaval, it is the necessity for manufacturers and distributors to look at their business model, reassess the suitability of their partnerships realistically, and form new partnerships that are much more sustainable for survival in the long term.

Aaudio Imports of Parker, Colorado has also undergone changes on lines to import. The core brands at Aaudio Imports, such as Acapella, Einstein and Lindemann, are now joined by Bergmann turntables from Denmark, Tidal speakers from Germany and Ypsilon Electronics from Greece. After having spent the months following my 2008 visit to Aaudio Imports with other speakers, I returned again to the Acapella Triolon Excalibur at Brian Ackerman’s Parker, Colorado residence, headquarters of Aaudio Imports.

This time I brought my favorite pop music from the 80s, among other audiophile selections, burned onto my laptop’s hard-drive originally via Apple® iTunes® at 16-bit/48kHz setting, and then compiled onto custom CDs. The sonics were superior decidedly than that from the original CDs; but the TE put forth such space and separations as to render other speakers mere average. Dan Fogelberg’s guitar in “Longer” attained the most hypnotic effect in the continuous flow. I’ll save more of that for later. Meanwhile, Brian set up a system based on the Raidho C1.0 mini-monitors, with Lindeman 820S SACD player, 830 preamplifier and 850 power amplifier.

The force and scale of a full-range Acapella High Violon IV or the Triolon Excalibur is not easily replicated by most other full-range systems by virtue of the extremely dense-sounding ion-tweeter. Yet, there was serious sonics from a pair of the Raidho C1 Ayra mini-monitors inside an adjacent listening room measuring 12 feet long, 10 feet wide and 7.5 feet high. A carefully set up system, as demonstrated by the one in this room, is capable of thunderous and fast bottom-end, and a balanced, very nicely integrated top-to-bottom coherency. For the setup, the speakers were positioned 2.5 feet from the front wall, the listening chair 6 feet away, with an additional 1.5 feet of space between the ears and the back wall.

Such was a nearfield listening experience as augmented by a very musical and refined solid-state system by Lindeman of Germany, in a meticulously treated listening room. The soundfield created by this system was comparatively more constrained and closed-in than that of the larger system, but the spatial scale was nearly identical, and the dynamic output of the system was considerably more easily obtained due to the less demanding amplification output required to drive the speaker into producing a room-filling sound. Putting aside the absolute superiority of the $64,000 full-range Acapella over the $17,000 Raidho in a medium to large room, the Raidho conjured up a soundfield of width and spaciousness at my listening position that can be compared very favorably even against that by the Acapella, with a soundstage depth even more holographic than the Acapella. If you are a New Yorker or San Franciscan condo-dweller where living quarters is at a premium, the Raidho will give you first-class audio experience nonetheless.

Because of the closer wall proximity to both the speakers and the listener, acoustic treatment was a primary element in the sonic makeup. On the other hand, tube electronics would not be my first choice for such a room size, for the heat generated would make staying in the room more claustrophobic. A reference system of electronics is mandatory in driving the Raidho, of course.

If you have a large room and a level of intimacy remains a criteria that you crave, then the $64,500 Acapella High Violon IV loudspeaker in Brian’s main room, set up on the opposite wall to the Triolon Excalibur, would be peerless, especially as driven by the Einstein OTL monoblock amplifiers. The High Violon MK IV was alternately fed signals from Einstein’s tube CD player “The Source”, as well as the solid-state Lindeman 820S SACD player that Dagogo senior reviewer Ed Momkus wrote about. In terms of sheer resolution, only the $29,000 Ypsilon DAC 100 surpasses the Lindeman. The Einstein, on the other hand, did form beautiful synergy with the Einstein preamp and OTL monoblocks in driving the Acapella. There were moments when I would not give up the resolution for anything, the Einstein CD player’s very alluring warmth notwithstanding. But then I have to also acknowledge the fact that the Einstein would make more variety of music sound more fluidic via the Acapella.

With the Einstein tube CD player, the Acapella was a little warmer and smoother. With the Lindeman, if one listens predominantly to symphonic music, it would make for one of the most complimentary digital front-end. Symphonic passages were simply in full form via the Lindeman 820S.

The High Violon IV features the same model Ion TW 1S ion tweeter module as the $198k TE, now in its MK II iteration. The power of the ion tweeter lies not merely in its output capability but of the astonishing comprehensiveness of it. There simply isn’t any tweeter design I’ve heard that can generate so much information at its level of density and uniformity. Ask a conventional dome tweeter to do the same and you will want to cover your ears. Neither can conventional tweeters approach the greatness of the ion tweeter in speed and ease.

Whereas other adjustable tweeters are usually set at the “neutral” 12 o’clock position, the Ion TW 1 S is factory-set at around 7:30, 7am being the lowest setting, and 6pm being the maximum. Unlike conventional tweeter system designs, the Ion TW 1S with its custom tube amplification stage, does not become progressively convoluted at higher volumes, a behavior exhibited by others consistently. The higher you set it to output, the higher the degree of transparency and details. In a matter of increased outputs, dimensionality of instruments and spatiality of venue all become more and more realistic. While the maximum output level at 6 is available on the dial, I thought even an 8am setting was already excessive for the room I was in, and it was a large room. The kind of airiness and resolution of the midrange to top-end was a marvel to behold and an experience to cherish.

I do confess that during this visit, I set the ion tweeter output of the High Violon IV a little higher, but did not tamper with the Triolon Excalibur’s tweeter setting. For purely objective perspective, I found the minutely increased tweeter level on the High Violon IV most constructive towards a more spacious and oxygen-rich experience. As for the TE, because of the exponentially more delicate balance of driver outputs between the tweeters, lower midrange horn, upper midrange horn and the tower of a quadruplet of woofers, it would be very inconsiderate for me as a guest to play with the setting. No?

If, for the first exposure to the ion tweeter, you find it objectionable to have such high output a level, you must then hear it at a lower level until you feel comfortable. Once you have arrived at your comfort level, proceed to raise the level gradually, and I doubt you’ll be able to tear yourself away from it. Most important of all, did I mention the Ion TW 1S is driven internally by tube?!

Adding to the alluring performance of the ion tweeter is its physical placement at ear level. For a tweeter that generates a far more tremendous amount of aural content than dome tweeters, the fact that it is also situated at such level as to radiates at ear level is plainly commendable. But I have withheld the biggest of news from you until now: The Ion TW 1S was operating near the minimal output level, via its adjustable output control at the back of the module.

The High Violon IV’s ion tweeter makes the speaker one of the most desirable reference speaker systems around, and it is the most affordable model in Acapella’s lineup that is equipped with an ion tweeter. Owners of this least expensive Acapella loudspeaker with the Ion TW 1S module are known to be most entrenched in its sound and not prone to persuasion from other makes. It is true at least to my ears that nothing in the current high-end audio industry can match the midrange weightlessness and hence sonic purity of the ion tweeter.

The infatuation with Acapella speaker systems as evidenced in some of these owners’ outright vocal proclamation of a fervent love and pride of ownership, can be understood easily. For I have also had the privilege of a pseudo ownership experience, after having been flown to the Aaudio Imports headquarters for extended, 6-day listening session each in the course of 3 years.

The last aspect of my visit beckons investigation into the notion of Ypsilon’s $90,000 SET 100 hybrid monoblock amplifiers, which I reviewed in Dagogo’s July Issue, driving the Triolon Excalibur. Although I had only listened to the TE at Brian’s place five days in a row for two years, the impression was unforgettable, and was reinforced every time they were demonstrated at CES and RMAF. This time, it was accompanied by the entire Ypsilon lineup, from the CDT-100 CD transport, the DAC-100 to the VPS 100 active/passive preamplifier, complimenting the SET 100.

The sound was so energized via the Acapella with such drive that it conjured up the spontaneity of a live concert. Tonally, the Acapella excelled at imparting finely defined characteristic of individual instruments onto even the busiest of stages. The overall effect was a musicality and realism that makes the Triolon Excalibur the most perfect speaker to me. Until the day comes when I can afford a house in the San Francisco Bay Area the size of Brian’s or Dagogo reviewer Fred Crowder’s, these memories of my annual pilgrimage to the Aaudio Imports headquarters will remain as the high points in my work as a reviewer. But this isn’t the end.

Since Brian took on the Tidal loudspeaker line, he has sold quite a few pairs already, including three pairs of the company’s $180,000 Sunray. There has to be a reason for these expensive speakers to sell so well the moment Brian begins to import them. I intend to find out the next time I visit him.

Link To Spotlight Article... http://www.dagogo.com/View-Article.asp?hArticle=651

Audiotop Connect Workstation

Review By Wayne Donnelly
Enjoy the Music.com
SuperiorAudio

The full kit — Connect1 first stage cleaner (30 mL, $99), Connect2 second stage cleaner (30 mL, $99), Connect3 contact enhancer (10 mL, $179), a pack of Q-tips and a set of tools (various-sized brushes, files, etc.) — retails for $377. Individual bottles of the three active elements may be purchased at the prices listed above for each. This stuff is more expensive by magnitudes than any other contact cleaners I have ever used. But it is also by far the most effective such product I have encountered.

In effect this is a super-detailing kit for your audio system. It is to be used on all contact surfaces, from the most obvious — component jacks and terminals, cable plugs and spades/bananas — down to power plugs and wall outlets, and even tube pins and sockets. Clearly, if you have a complex system you are in for a few hours of work.

Connect1 is the heady-duty cleaner. Connect2 completes the cleaning process (and, BTW, is extremely volatile, so keep the bottle capped between wetting the tools). Connect3 acts as a shield against oxide re-building on the surfaces, and improves electrical contact and transfer across all of the junctions.

I purchased this product nearly 5 years ago when I was still living in California. But I never used it until recently, primarily because with my impaired eyesight it wouldn't have been possible to do fine work such as tube sockets accurately and without wasting too much of the precious fluids. But a couple of months ago a generous friend — who had just done his own system and been dazzled by the results — volunteered to help me get the job done. Thanks, George!

My system was not terribly "dirty." Most of the cables are less than a year old, and I am not a smoker. I also have little environmental pollution, as my Chicago Loop location would be so noisy with open windows that I leave them closed and rely on air conditioning in hot weather. We were able to effect the complete job economically, so I have plenty of each fluid left for another cleaning a year or two down the road. That lessens the sting of the price.

But even if this cleaning had used up everything, I would've had no worries after hearing the result. The myriad improvements — far more natural realism of voices and instruments, a larger but more precise soundstage, stunningly improved dynamics, and an even lower system noise floor — were greater in magnitude than any single component upgrade I can recall. All of that for less than 400 bucks is a hell of a value! Any audiophile who really wants to get maximum performance should spend the money and take the time.

Audiotop Digital Cleaner

Review By Wayne Donnelly
Enjoy the Music.com
SuperiorAudio

This CD/DVD cleaner/polisher ($99) comes in a small pump-spray bottle, and is simple as can be to use. Two or three pumps to cover the data side of the disc, and a quick wipe-down with a soft tissue or napkin, center to periphery around the disc, and the disc is ready to play. (The instructions suggest a double application for best results, but I find that a careful single application produces great sonic benefits that do not seem materially improved by a second round. I'm reminded of those old shampoo ads that called for two wash and rinse cycles. Once is enough, I think.)

What are the results? Well, all of the usual audio checklist virtues: significantly better overall transparency, reductions in "digital glare," even on the oldest not-too-good-sounding CDs. Small but valuable gains in soundstaging, with a greater sense of the sound being detached from the speakers. (That is a virtue with my Analysis speakers anyway, but the Digital further enhances that quality.) Low-level detail is enhanced, in a natural, non-spotlighted way. Most importantly, the music simply sounds less "canned" — livelier, more immediate, more involving — the kind of instinctive gut-level response that I have experienced more typically with analog than with digital playback.

It works great with DVDs as well. Even with my poor eyesight, it is easy to see the better color saturation, improved contrast and deeper blacks coming through my Oppo blu-ray player to my 60-inch Sony flat screen.

$99 for this little bottle seems a bit steep. But a bottle goes a long way, especially if you treat your discs one application at a time. I've already been through a couple of bottles, but each one lasted months, and I play a lot of discs. Given the sonic improvements — clearly better than any other spray-on CD treatment I have ever used — AUDIOTOP Digital is worth the money. In tandem with my Auto Desk CD lathe, this nifty spray is now an essential part of my preparation to play any little silver disc.

Millennium Carbon Fiber Disc Damper

Review By Wayne Donnelly
Enjoy the Music.com
SuperiorAudio

Like the LP mat, Millennium's M-CD damper is only .3 mm thick (with no fabric backing). That thinness makes it suitable for use in virtually any transport, top- or front-loading. I first heard about it when an audio buddy raved about how much it had helped his Metronome player. For a couple of years I had been using the Marigo damping disc, a lightweight device made of treated (with what I don't know) stiff paper. But the improvement with the Millennium was immediately apparent, and most exciting. With every disc, regardless of musical genre or age of the recording, the M-CD damper improved the sound. Deeper and more precise bass was most immediately noticeable, but it didn't take long to perceive a more organized and coherent spatial presentation and more beautiful tonality on voices and instruments — and, importantly, a wider, less compressed dynamic range.

This thing has benefits beyond simple disc playback. Because it is so thin, I can use it when ripping a disc onto my iMac and burning CDs from the computer. For instance, I ripped the Ivan Fischer Mahler Fourth — a wonderful-sounding SACD that was one of my 2009 Blue Note Award choices — onto the iMac, and burned a Redbook (16/44) CD of it.

Comparative playback over my Modwright/Denon player was fascinating. I had previously ripped and burned the same performance before receiving the Millennium damper, and had found that the copy I burned from the iMac, though Red Book rather than SACD, was very close in sound to the SACD layer of the original disc. With the new Millennium-aided copy, or when playing the performance from the iMac through a USB DAC, there were only fairly inconsequential differences between the original and the ripped or burned versions — except that here and there I thought the copies sounded a little better! HIGHLY recommended — but let me emphasize that for ripping/burning discs, I've used it only on my iMac. For any other computer, proceed at your own risk.

Dagogo/Fred Crowder RMAF 09 Show Report

Acapella/Einstein

Aaudio Imports was again showing in the Larkspur Suite with a system comprised of Einstein electronics (The Source Balanced Tube CD player, The Tube Mk II Tube preamp, The Final Cut MK 60 mono OTL amps), Acapella (High Violon speakers, Fondato Silenzio isolation bases Reference LaMusila speaker cables and High LaMusika power cords), Isoclean power cords and filtering, and Stage II Gryphon interconnects and Zyklops power cords. This was similar to the system used last year except that the High Violon Mk IV had been substituted for the larger Triolon and the substantial room treatment used last year was missing. The sound was sweet/ natural with excellent string tone. Depth, stage and focus were exceptional. One of my test CD's is Ruth Ann Swenson- Positively Golden. Cut two from “Lucia de Lammermore” contains some mezzo fortes that are very difficult for most systems to reproduce without break-up. On this system, the sound was magical. There was nothing that I threw at this system that sounded anything but superb. This was one of the two or three rooms to which I kept returning during the show.

Link to show report site... http://www.dagogo.com/View-Article.asp?hArticle=585

Stereomojo - RMAF 2009 - Bergmann Sindre

Johnnie Bergmann displays his Stereomojo award for "2009 Turntable of the Year"

for the remarkable air bearing and air suspended arm Sindre (pictured). Stereomojo did the first review of the new table.

Chatting with Jonathan Valin of Absolute Sound, Darby asked him if he had heard anything that really impressed him, to which

Valin replied, "Did you see that new table with air bearing and the air tracking linear arm?"

"You mean the Bergmann?", James replied.

"Yes! That's it."

Well..um...it's our Turntable of the Year, Jonathan...."

"You mean you've already reviewed it?!!"

Turntable of the Year Award, Bergmann Sindre Turntable..... Stereomojo

The Audio Beat - RMAF 2009 - Best of Show

Though the Tidal Contriva Diacera SE speakers seemed too large for the room in which they were used, the sound they produced -- big, fast, and musically detailed -- overcame any preconceived notions. The electronics were all from Ypsilon, including a CDT 100 CD player/transport ($25,000), a DAC 100 digital-to-analog converter ($29,000), a VPS 100 phono stage ($25,000), and a PST 100 preamp ($36,000). The Ypsilon DHT mono amps ($75,000/pair) use the big Russian GM70 output tube. All cables were from Stage III, the rack was from Acapella, and the power products were from Isoclean. The turntable was a Bergmann Sindre ($20,000).

We expect a particular sound from speakers with ceramic drivers -- one that's unnaturally uptight, often constricting dynamics and instrumental bloom. But these Tidal speakers seem to be of a different breed, as the sound billowed from them with ease and natural dynamic flow. Hugh Masakela's "Stimela," a demo-music staple, was as forceful and quick-paced as ever on LP. Some great sound in a small room; what could all of this equipment do in a larger space?

Link to show report site... http://www.theaudiobeat.com/show.htm

Stereo Times RMAF 09' Show Report

The Acapella/Einstein OTL setup from Audio Arts proved once again why folks who love tubes and horns...should! Both Moreno Mitchell and I walked away once again this year super impressed by this lovely combination which this year included the smaller Acapella High Violon MKIV complete with plasma tweeter ($68k).

Clement Perry... Stereo Times

Gary Lea listens to the Acapella...

Recently I had the opportunity to visit Brian Ackerman of Aaudio Imports at his place in Parker Colorado. It was a very enjoyable afternoon to say the least; Fred Crowder’s “Boys in Toyland” tag could not be more accurate!

Caveat!!!

Our fearless leader, Constantine Soo, did a very in-depth look at Brian’s operation, so I will not take up space regurgitating the info when you can find it here http://www.dagogo.com/View-Article.asp?hArticle=326. In Constantine’s six-day visit he gives you the specs and in-depth details that I could not even begin to address with just a few hours of listening.

I will just share a few brief impressions of the sound that I experienced while in the comfort of Brian’s hospitality.

I had heard things about Brian’s place and was very curious to experience it for myself. I only wish I had planned for more time but the visit was somewhat last-minute and I was pressed to get back to Vegas a bit sooner than I had wanted.

Brian imports some of the finest electronics and speakers on the planet. His main showroom contains a system that borders on approximately $ 1 million in retail value if you add in all accessories, room treatment and the work on the wiring and all associated installed electronic materials purpose-built into the house and dedicated to the area that contains the listening rooms. The idea of listening to a one-million-dollar system is a bit mindboggling even for the hardcore audiophile, let alone the average consumer. One thing is for certain: Once you listen to a system like this, you never, and I mean never forget it even though you will try! Why will you try? Simple! If you don’t, nothing is ever good enough afterwards. I had a very long drive back to Las Vegas to mull over the experience.

Upon arriving at Brian’s I was given the grand tour of the whole place, including some of the purpose-built features when he had the house/audio showroom built, such as audio specific wiring, junction boxes, etc. He showed me his inventory system, how he managed the business and even his 1996 Colnago C40 bike, a bike I also owned and have regretted letting go of ever since selling it in 2001. After a complete tour we went to get some lunch and to discuss the audio business in general and why Brian decided to operate out of a home in a little town outside Denver (not too far from where I lived in Denver, actually). This is a growing phenomenon in the industry. More and more people from dealers to distributors are operating out of home-based facilities. This particular trend is something I will address in a separate article down the road. For now, I was just totally focused on the sound I was about to hear!

When we got back I was itching to hear the Acapella Triolon Excalibur speakers. I have only heard them at shows and that is never the best environment to hear something as astonishing as these speakers truly are. Let me say I was certainly not disappointed!

Brian’s place is spectacular and his showroom is perhaps one of the best I have ever sat in. $50k or so of Golden Acoustics room tuning devices can tend to do that for you. Then when you throw in about a bazillion dollars worth of audiophilia, well what’s not to love? The Golden Acoustics room tuning devices, while certainly not cheap, are rather effective as proven in Brian’s room. Since it is a basement with lower ceilings and a load bearing support in the middle of the room, there is some real opportunity for odd sound nodes and room reflections. The Golden Acoustics traps tamed the room exceptionally well. The system relies on computer modeling of a room and then Golden Acoustics builds a package designed specifically for your room. Nice touch indeed and rather effective.

The first system I listened to was the smaller, warm up system. (Yes, there is some sarcasm there as this system will, most likely, blow away most of the high-end systems in existence out there in the world today.) System one was composed of a set of Acapella High Violon speakers driven by an Einstein hybrid stereo amp, fronted by a Lindemann 820 SACD player and Lindeman 830S pre-amp. Cabling was Stage III interconnects and Acapella speaker cable. As reported by Ed Momkus in his review and Constantine Soo in his Spotlight article, the Lindemann products are simply stunning in their performance. At $22,300 for the 820S SACD/CD player with an outboard analogue power supply, this digital front-end has a spectacular delivery. It is helped along, no doubt, by the built -in analog preamp section. The detail this system was able to produce was as good as I have heard and certainly justified the price.

If you have not seen Acapella speakers, you are missing out. From a visual standpoint there are few, if any speakers that can really capture my imagination. Most are a takeoff of the old rectangular-box design. Nothing wrong with that at all, especially if they are well engineered and they sound great, except that they can get a bit boring to look at after a while. Well, there is zero chance of that happening with the Acapella brand speakers; pictures do no justice whatsoever to these speakers. With the exception of the entry-level Fidelio model, these are anything but your ordinary-plain-vanilla speaker boxes. There certainly are box elements in the makeup of Acapella speakers but they are anything but ordinary, especially when you get up in the range.

The Sound

One of the first things I noticed was a total lack of any indication that I was listening to a horn speaker. Horns are notorious for sounding like…... well, like horns! The characteristic often associated with many horn speakers from the past, besides generally very high sensitivity, is a sort of “honking” delivery. In part I think this could always be attributed to not only the inherent difference in the structure of the driver but also the old horn speakers with rare exception, never seemed to integrate the sound of the horn driver with other dynamic drivers in the same unit. There always seemed to me to be two distinctly different types of sounds emanating from the same box and never truly in sync with each other. This was not a sound l was particularly fond of. The Acapella, like some of its horn loaded rivals, has solved this problem and the problem of integration of the various drivers has essentially gone away. The sound was immediately captivating and thoroughly engaging. The bottom-end was tight, percussive and tuneful. Drum hits were lightning fast with plenty of weight and slam and never bloated. The horn provided some astonishing midrange clarity that was also silky smooth, and rendered vocals with a sense of air and proper weight. This particular horn midrange produced the full breath of vocals as though you were very close to the singer.

Another trait of older horn speakers was their deliver of sparkling, exceptionally clear and oftentimes very shrill high frequencies. For the Acapella and its ion tweeter, no such shrill effect exists. This particular tweeter technology delivers extremely smooth highs and I got absolutely no sense of harsh edges or grain. To quote the manufacturer, “The ion tweeter used today is the fastest high frequency transmission system in the world. It is operating without any mass and the upper range of the high frequencies can only be limited by the manufacturer himself. Bandwidth normally is adjusted to approximately 40 KHz. This extraordinary bandwidth is providing an extremely precise reproduction of any kind of music. Even in the lowest frequencies you can feel exact modulation of the overtones. Fine adjustments to the ion tweeter and the midrange horn unit can be made in order to adapt the loudspeaker to every acoustical environment.”

While listening to The Stimulators’ “New Year’s Eve on the Waterfront”, the chimes on the intro resonate almost like gently breaking glass. The delivery was incredibly natural in the sound. The leading edge transients were spot-on and the decay was lacking any sense of the artificiality and just seemed to fade away at the different rates you would expect different sized chimes to do. Overall, this system would satisfy even the most hardcore audiophile for a very, very long time. I found the Violon ultra-satisfying, and during the listening session I found myself trying to figure out how I could pass a $68,200 set of speakers past Paula and wind up with a pair in my home. This is saying something because directly behind me were the Triolon Excaliburs which had been calling to me like a siren on the open seas. During the audition of the Violons, they did such a great job of talking me into the music, that I almost forgot the Triolons. Just almost! Almost is only good in hand grenades and horseshoes as they say, and alas the Triolons began to call to me again.

Turning my attention to the big system was a very deeply anticipated event. At the final moment I became extremely anxious. “What if they are so good that I cannot live without them?” “What if they don’t sound as good as I think they will?” “What if they sound like crap?” Well not to worry dear boy. Nope, you worried for absolutely nothing. Listening to the $197,300 Acapella Triolon Excaliburs is like being on the front row, in front of David Gilmour, as Pink Floyd launches into “Comfortably Numb”! Suddenly you are having your hair blown back by the sheer volume of air that the speakers are moving.

Triolon Excalibur (left channel)

I really began to look at this setup as I was having my facial skin move back across the bone structure of my skull as though I was taking a ride in a rocket sled. What a fabulous looking setup. Aside from the absolutely gorgeous Triolon Excalibur speakers, I was facing a quad of Einstein Final Cut MK 60 633C monoblock amps. These amps are OTL type and produce 60 watts per channel. Driving the Triolon’s 4 ohm impedance allowed the speakers to really breathe. With the Einstein “The Source” balanced tube CD player pushing through the Einstein “The Tube” MkII preamp, the sound was simply glorious. The sense of scale and sheer output was like nothing I have experienced before. Certainly nothing I can consciously remember!

Unfortunately, Brian did not have a turntable on hand but we really enjoyed some fine tunes through the CD input. One particular track that jumped out at me was Marc Cohen’s “Perfect Love” from his self titled CD. This song is, how do I put this, intimate. Yes that’s it. The song is primarily two guitars driving the background music for marc’s vocals. Marc’s singing style on this track is a bit reminiscent of Mark Knopfler in style but the delivery and the richness of the tune immediately captures your attention, and you become aware that this is not Mark Knopfler at all. Singing background on the song is James Taylor. The song has a good deal of intricate finger picking technique going on behind the beautifully done vocal harmonies. I immediately noticed that I could not only hear each of the strings being picked but I could also hear the sound of flesh against string. Jeff Beck quit using a plastic pick years ago and has used the flesh of his fingers almost exclusively since because he noted that there was a distinctly different sound when flesh hits the strings. It is not often that I hear that very subtle difference and certainly not with the degree of detail I was hearing on the Acapella/Einstein setup!

The vocals came across in a relaxed and unstrained way. It was as if both performers were sitting in the room with us just casually playing. The high frequencies were delivered with the same crispness and transparent detail as the Violons, only it seemed that it was on a larger scale despite the fact that the tweeters were the same.

On a bit more aggressive music, the Triolons were able to develop and fill the room with some strong sound pressure levels. Not the kind that loads up and kicks you in the teeth, but a delivery more intended to make the music a part of you and not just directed towards you. Feel, as much as hear – but in a very balanced way.

At this point it is important to note that $50k worth of Golden Acoustic room treatment. You supply Golden with the measurements of your room along with door locations, windows, pillars and anything else in the room that may be interacting with the music. Golden Acoustics then designs a system of room treatment panels to optimize your room through a complex computer modeling program. Suffice it to say that it works and it is expensive. The panels are certainly visible but they are paint matched to the room and they work so well you begin to not really notice them. I would imagine that Brian’s room would yank the absolute best out of any system or by default demonstrate any flaws or problems that might be present. Couple this with the extreme lengths that Brian went to installing audio specific electrical wiring, grounding and junction boxes, I cannot imagine a better room to spend a day or a few years in just listening to music, coming out only to bathe, eat and perhaps exercise a bit and back to the room. If Howard Hughes were alive today he would still be a hermit, but he most likely would be listening in a room just like this.

Overall the experience was way too short and too intoxicating to take it all in a matter of a few hours. I plan to return at some point and spend a full day listening to this system again, and hopefully when there is a vinyl rig available. I have now had the bar raised for me and there is a new reference to measure against. If you ever have the chance to visit Brian and listen to his system, take it and never look back! You will be forever changed by it. Now, how can I get a million dollars without ending up in an 8X8 cell with someone who wants to make me his girlfriend?

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