At the show, the speakers were installed in a difficult, narrow space, driven by Vitus SL-103/SS-103 amplification and an SD-025 DAC paired with an Everest Audio Labs Ascent server. Despite the acoustic challenges, they showed enough to pique my interest, delivering characteristic electrostatic speed, detail and transparency, but also body, presence and impressive dynamic range. Playing the familiar Batiashvili concert recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, delicacy and dynamic graduation of the solo instrument was first rate, with plenty of image depth – although width was constrained by the narrow space.
Seating choice and height proved typically critical with these speakers. Sit to high and the treble sounded bright and exposed, but slump lower and that brightness disappeared completely as the upper registers fell into line with the mid-band. The attention paid to rake angle and high-frequency energy/balance adjustability suggests that in a more dedicated space, results should be impressively focussed and build on the already seamless integration at the show. Bass was deep and impressively sudden but, if any speaker was ever crying out for more space, this was it. A very different approach to electrostatic design, the Lirogon Origin is high on my list for further attention.
The Gershman Symphoria Loudspeaker (and TLA amplifiers)
By Roy Gregory
It’s almost becoming a tradition: Gershman, show up in a sound cabin, pair their speakers with the impressive but largely unsung amplifiers from True Life Audio (TLA) and lo and behold, music duly emerges – in a setting where music so often struggles to survive.
This year, the company brought their new three-way Symphoria speaker, two 8” drivers in a sealed cabinet with a claimed 20Hz extension. Anybody else and that might raise an eyebrow (or two) but Eli Gershman has long been a master of extracting bass quality AND quantity from surprisingly small enclosures. Driven here by a Lampizator Aphrodite DAC, TLA TSP-1 preamp and a pair of SSA-350 power amps, hooked together with Cardas cables, the sound was warm, full and inviting – just like previous years. Musical fluidity and coherence are Gershman signature strengths and they’re fully present and correct here. Scale and presence were both impressive and, while the speakers are smaller than they look in the pictures, the sound is bigger than their compact dimensions suggest – bringing their own special something and totally competitive with other, better-known speakers at around their $70K asking price. Both Gershman and TLA have something of a cult following. Both brands deserve considerably greater attention. The amps have been repeatedly promised for review and now, with new distribution in place, hopefully that will happen. Meanwhile, the Gershman/TLA combination certainly seems like a musical marriage made in heaven.
Acouplex HD
By Roy Gregory
While Acouplex is rapidly gaining a reputation for itself, MusicWorks, its manufacturers are not standing still. Vienna saw them supporting the Peak/CH system with a full court press, including ReFract panels on the CH units produced from a new, High Density (HD) formulation, a larger footprint ReFract to match the M10, judiciously applied cable risers and profiled washers under the locking knobs on the SunFyre speakers. Once again, the benefits were easily demonstrated by simply removing one or two of the ReFracts. Like everything else, consistency counts and as this system ably demonstrated, the more Acouplex you applied, the better it got.
