Sunday, May 28, 2006
All prices are quoted in euros unless otherwise noted.
1 €  is approximately 1.28 US dollars at time of report.

Gryphon Audio Designs of Denmark showed a prototype "concept" preamplifier that mixes high-end performance with lifestyle convenience. The Mirage reference preamplifier is a three-piece unit comprising a main chassis up top, a separate power supply below, and a removable control unit that talks to the "mothership" (Gryphon's term) and can be placed wherever the user desires.

TKE of Austria will customize their S1-SL speaker to the customer's satisfaction. A basic S1-SL, as above, starts at 3200 € per pair. Things move upward from there.

MB Quart also showed a rather radical-looking design. The diminutive Cerra C 500 satellites have a ceramic enclosure and two-way coaxial driver. The matching C 600 P subwoofer has a 20cm driver and 100W (150W peak) amplifier. The C 500s are priced at 299 € each, and the C 600 P subwoofer is 699 €.

Lehmann Audio showed two new phono stages. On the left is the Black Cube Statement, and on the right is the newest version of the well-regarded Black Cube. Ironically, though, the Statement is priced lower than the regular Black Cube -- 300 € versus 430 €. We quizzed Norbert Lehmann about this, and he said that it's a "statement" as far as budget phono stages go. In other words, no other product can touch it at its price. Confusing? A bit. As for the still-top-of-the-line Black Cube, Norbert showed us the old and new Black Cube circuit boards to better illustrate the improvements he has made.

Omnidirectional loudspeakers seem to be getting more and more popular. Italy's Luxuraudio (the parent company is HiDiamond) showed the Colibry loudspeaker, which retails for 750 € per pair or 399 € each. It is a two-way design with an upward-firing woofer and tweeter and deflectors mounted above both.

Sonics is a relatively new German company whose designer, Joachim Gerhard, was formerly with Audio Physic. The new Allegria features a SEAS ribbon tweeter, is available in 25 finishes, and is priced at 10,000 € per pair.

On the other hand, strange-looking designs were certainly in abundance at this show. Case in point: the Turtle components from Harmondio of Holland. On the left is the SE211 tube power amplifier, and on the right is the CD16 top-loading CD player. Because these were prototypes, no pricing was given.

Although they are quite large, we did like the elegant styling of the Ypsilon components that come from Greece. On the top of the rack is the CDT-100 transport (15,000 €), below that is the PST-100 preamplifier (30,000 €), and on the bottom shelf is the DAC-100 DAC (20,000 €). The SET-100 mono amps cost 50,000 € per pair and are a tube/solid-state hybrid design that is said to deliver 120W into 8 ohms.