Nagra's first CD player is available in three
forms and at three different prices. The CDC (shown) with RCA/XLR variable output and a
headphone jack is $14,995. The CDP with fixed output is $13,495, and the CDT transport is
$12,495. In each variation, the playing mechanism and laser are built into
the drawer.
The price of refined speaker performance just
took a nosedive. Usher Audio's new V-601 minimonitor ($700/pair) and V-604 floorstander ($1480/pair)
sounded extraordinary driven by -- what else? -- Usher electronics. Each speaker has
real-wood veneer -- we verified this twice to be sure!
The bottom-most drivers of the IDS IDS-25
speaker ($18,900 per pair) look like small woofers, but they are actually only four of 25 drivers
run full range and with no crossover. Internally, each eight-and-a-half-foot-tall IDS-25
is said to have 70 feet of Cardas wire.
We wonder why in this iPod age a product like
the Nova Physics Memory Player hasn't hit the market until now. It stores uncompressed
music files on an internal 300GB hard drive and then plays them from 2GB of flash memory.
Versions with ($15,000) and without ($10,000) a tubed output stage exist. The Memory
Player was one of the sources for the Standout Behold
system.
A pair of Shoreline 300 amps ($21,500 each)
strapped to mono sounded big and authoritative driving ESP speakers. We marked this room
mentally for more listening when it wasn't so crowded. The 300 puts out 150Wpc in stereo,
300W in mono.
Here is a complete suite for digitizing LPs:
turntable, laptop and Hagerman The Ripper digital phono stage ($400). Jim
Hagerman digitized vinyl, storing it on his laptop and switching between direct playback
and the digital equivalent on the fly.
