The latest Stello product is the CDA320
upsampling CD player, which is fully balanced and uses Burr-Brown 1794 DAC chips. Even at
$2000, it seems very reasonably priced.
Einstein's $25,250-per-pair The Final Cut MK60
OTL monoblocks exuded quality and sounded swell driving a pair of Acapella Violin Mk III
speakers. Look for a SoundStage! review of these German amps in 2005.
Ralph Karsten of Atma-Sphere fame introduced
his new Rendition Audio line of equipment, leading off with the Monitor 60 mono amps,
featuring eight 6AS7G output tubes per channel and selling for a very reasonable $4650 per
pair...
...and following it up with what is billed as
the world's first OTL guitar amplifier. The Evolution One ($3800) pumps out 50 watts into
a line-source-array speaker.
Polished chrome and digital photography do not
a happy couple make. The new Jadis JD-1 Pro two-box CD transport ($25,000) has a full
complement of digital outputs, including AT&T glass. The top piece, which looks like
exotic wood, is actually a hand-mixed composite material.
VRS's new The Gold multimedia server ($7500)
can function as a whole-house media server, distributing music and movies to multiple
rooms, or as a single source for a high-end-audio system. The Gold has a 450-gigabyte
hard drive and the ability to set custom bit and sample rates, and it is housed in an
audiophile-approved chassis. Its graphical user interface, which is displayed...
...on the included flat-panel monitor, allows
for extensive manipulation of playlists. Could this be the audiophile record rack of
tomorrow?
