Saturday, May 27, 2006
All prices are quoted in euros unless otherwise noted.
1 €  is approximately 1.28 US dollars at time of report.

Norway's Abrahamsen doesn't keep you guessing as to what this product is, inside or outside. The SA-1, which is obviously a two-channel power amplifier, features what the company calls "Dynamic Feedback Control" -- a circuit that is said to use relatively high feedback for low frequencies with decreased amounts of feedback for the midrange and high frequencies. The SA-1 produces "about 50Wpc," with considerably more available for dynamic peaks. The SA-1 is priced at 4500 €.

Energy Pro is an entirely new division of Canada's Audio Products International that is developing a line of speakers, both active and passive as well as subwoofers, for the pro-audio market. On the right are the E7A (top) and E9A, which are the two active models in the range. They are priced at $1600 and $2200 USD per pair. As can be seen by the back panel of the E7A, the speakers are very feature rich and able to accept both analog and digital input. [www.energy-pro.ca]

We thought that this preamp from Australia's Melody was a real looker. The L 280 is part of the company's Reference line and retails for 2690 €. From front to back, the L 280 looks quite well finished. There is also...

...a matching power amplifier called the M 380 that is said to deliver 60Wpc. It's priced at 2380 €. The preamp and amplifier are available in both finishes shown, although the slick-looking walnut finish carries a 100 €-per-unit premium.

Missing the days of flared jeans and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road? Well, there's nothing like taking something new and making it look real old. Wharfedale's new Airdale Neo is inspired by designs of some 30 years ago and costs 13,000 € per pair. Retro? Kind of -- although most retro designs are visually a mix of old and new, whereas Wharfedale has even gone to the lengths of mimicking the binding posts of time gone by, as well as making the cabinet and grille look as if they've been stored in the back of your uncle's garage.

On the other hand, Quad (which has the same parent company as Wharfedale, Chinese-based IAG) has released two new electrostatic designs -- technology that's many decades old -- that are thoroughly modern-looking. On the left is the ESL 2805, which retails for 6990 € per pair, and on the right is the larger ESL 2905, which retails for 8990 € per pair.

Then there's Germany's Duevel, which is doing something completely different with its Planets loudspeaker, which retails for 650 € per pair. The goal with Planets is to help the consumer own a floorstanding omidirectional speaker for a very low price. We listened to the Planets for some time and were impressed with how spacious they sounded.

We were also impressed by the quality and appearance of Goldster Audio's tubed integrated amplifier and single-driver speakers. They can be mated with any source (such as a turntable, as shown), but look happiest (and slickest) when paired with an iPod, which is what the look of Goldster's system is designed to complement. The amplifier runs in pure-class-A mode and is said to deliver 7.5Wpc. The cost of the amplifier-and-speaker combination with cabling is 3200 €.