The Kroma speakers have delivered consistently good sound for several years and were another company to hit a new high this time around. The new, compact-ish Callas speakers were paired with Engstrom amplifiers (including a prototype phono-stage) Jorma cables and quality front-ends, to considerable musical effect. The TechDAS AirForce V turntable has always been one of the better sounding decks from the Japanese manufacturer and it was teamed here with the Xquisite cartridge, whose delicacy and clarity are ideally suited to the Munich rooms, while this was also another of the systems to benefit from the presence of the Wadax Studio Player.
The sound was lucid and coherent, with a natural sense of flow and dynamic density. I’ve never been a huge fan of the Eric amplifiers, always preferring the smaller Lars in the past, but here, in this system, Eric sounded just fine. If a successful system is a set-up that’s greater than the sum of its parts, this was another such example, a middle-weight contender that, musically speaking, easily outstripped so many of the big-boy systems shouting the odds elsewhere.
Peak Consult, CH Precision, The Chord Co and a cast of thousands…
One of the most consistently relaxing sounds at the show was to be found in Peak Consult’s cabin. Here, their re-worked El Diablos were fed from a CH Precision 1 Series set-up (D1.5, C1.2, X1 dual output PSU, L1, X1 single output PSU and M1.1 stereo amplifier). The whole kit and caboodle was laced together using Chord Co’s flagship Music cables, together with no fewer than three PowerHAUS M6 distribution blocks, three PowerARAY grounding units and a host of other ARAY pieces, seemingly in every available spare socket. But drill down further into the system details and some seriously interesting products emerge…
Reiki Audio supplied their Super Switch and JundoStream cable to feed the Grimm MU1 server.
Andante-Largo (who also manufacture the excellent Silent Mount two-part titanium footers used throughout the system) supplied the fascinating, lightweight, spaceframe racks, an object lesson in Japanese precision manufacturing: one with clearly demonstrable musical benefits. These racks are far from cheap and decidedly different to the heavy-weight structures that have increasingly become the norm, but they might just offer a superior alternative. They’re slated for early review…
Acouplex ReFract damping plates positioned atop the CH units caused plenty of comment (and not a few shocked faces when their musical impact was demonstrated) but they were just the most visible Acouplex elements. Plug Schu AC plug dampers were used throughout and Acouplex pucks supported the Chord PowerHAUS distribution units. Finally, a single intriguing cable lifters/damper was placed under each of the speaker cables.
Telos Audio delivered a quiet ethernet feed, thanks to their Magcro G and Macro N active noise reduction units, while their Macro Q units were used in the firmware update ports of the CH components. Their influence was a bit of a puzzle, as their active circuits remained unpowered by the dormant USB sockets, yet their benefits were easily demonstrated and consistent.
