But the real story was next door, where a much larger CH/Peak system (10 Series electronics and the new SunFyre speakers) was showing the advantages of an all Chord Music cable loom. It’s rare to hear the flagship cable used as it should be in a public event and, despite the quality of the other components in the system, it was very much an equal partner in what was one of the most musically engaging and enjoyable set-ups on show. It’s an especially impressive result, given its modest pricing when compared to other flagship cable offerings, competition that on this showing Chord Music is perfectly capable of meeting and beating. All of which makes the impending arrival of a new (as yet un-named) flagship cable line, pitched at roughly twice the price of the Chord Music a genuinely intriguing prospect. Expect to see first samples around the end of the year…
Under New Ownership – Part 2
Goldmund
By Roy Gregory
Goldmund, one of the oldest and still one of the most important names in high-end audio recently, quietly changed hands, acquired by a Swiss family with businesses in interiors and furniture. Firmly in keeping with Goldmunds distributed music technologies and philosophy, some observers wondered fifths signalled a move into ‘lifestyle’ products and away from high-performance, high-end audio…
In Vienna, the company was clearly out to scotch such rumours. Not only was there a walk through display of the great and the good products from their storied past, they supplied electronics to a number of other rooms (including Kharma, Wadax and Marten) while also presenting the massive, flagship Gaia speaker system, a huge, five-box stack that incorporates digital processing, active crossover and electronics and powerful room compensation. In raw hardware terms, that’s an eight-driver, five-way system, running eight channels of Alize DAC technology with eight associated channels of Telos (class A/B) amplification. The system was running from an Eidos streamer via the Ouranos Excellence digital pre-amp and processor, linked to the speakers by S/PDIF cables (although the system is also wireless capable).
Goldmund design and development staff were on hand, presenting structured demonstrations, including Head of Acoustics, Veronique Adam, surely one of the most important and influential woman in hi-fi (at a time when others are waving the Women In Hi-Fi flag). In the picture, the speakers look relatively small: They’re not! Each speaker is over two-meters (6,10″) tall. This system’s headroom, bandwidth and spatial coherence was remarkable. Playing the Holst Planets (Mehta on Decca?) The sheer scale was awesome, while the blank face and monolithic appearance of the speakers simply added to the sense of the music simply appearing in space. This is a system that deserves to be heard in the best listening space available – and that wasn’t in Vienna! The new factory and listening facility outside Geneva should be ready in a couple of months. An early visit is high amongst the post-show priorities.
Under New Ownership – Part 1
Avantgarde Acoustic Opus 1 Loudspeaker
By Roy Gregory
