Tubes from Odyssey Audio! The new Candela
preamp ($1200) uses a
pair of 12AU7s and is said to be "designed and optimized for [use with]
solid-state and digital amplification." [www.odysseyaudio.com]
The Amber Wave Audio 304TL monoblocks
($42,000/pair, including delivery to your listening room) might be the biggest amps we've
ever seen -- the CD in front helps give scale to these mammoth, 200-pound monoblocks. They
use 304TL
output tubes and 3B28 xenon rectifier tubes to produce 200 watts each -- and a lot of
heat.
Though in prototype form at the RMAF,
Symposium Acoustics' Panorama speakers will likely see at least limited production on a
per-order basis. They use custom-built planar-magnetic drivers down to 100Hz and separate
huge subwoofers below that. The projected price is $50,000 to $60,000 per pair.
A few people asked us, "Did you see the
computer with the LP playing on its screen?" This is what they meant -- the Pure
Vinyl software ($129). Along with a turntable, analog-to-digital converter, microphone amp
(to maintain a cartridge's inherent balanced output), and Macintosh computer, Pure Vinyl
allows you to archive your LPs to a hard drive and, according to the company,
"enhance the audio quality of vinyl by applying DSP during playback." Still,
people loved the image of the LP playing on a computer screen.
