Home Entertainment Expo 2006 may have finally marked the abandoning of high-end audio as a lifestyle unto itself and a return to "Lifestyle Plus Hi Fi." The difference? The best example of the former is Sony and Sony Life. Wake up to a Sony alarm clock, check the Internet on your VAIO, toast your bagel in your Sony, well you get the idea. Or maybe not, since at last check
Sony has scaled back their ambitions and has returned to our 3rd planet from the sun. Welcome Home!
As for "Lifestyle Plus Hifi," (henceforth "Lifestyle+") there are several examples that come to mind, the current top of the mark being
Bang and Olufsen (B&O). This is where I risk being chased into a windmill by an angry crowd of local peasant audiophiles carrying 2nd-hand $1000 interconnects. In an earlier less enlightened time, I would have been stoned to death with isolation cones and magical wooden pucks.
Bang and Olufsen is the epitome of Lifestyle+. In San Francisco, they have teamed with Roche Bobois, the oh-so-French furniture manufacturer, to showcase a living experience which includes high end audio. Designers and clients can view and recline in low-slung $15,000 couches complemented by $15,000 of B&O equipment, which they probably first saw in B&O spreads in magazines such as "Metropolitan Home" and "Dwell."
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| B&O gear is designed to fit into the luxury lifestyle, not define it. |
Is this really high end audio? The price point and more importantly lifestyle says "YES". The audiophile community would probably say "NO", or more likely would dismiss it as form over function or style without substance.
Is the furniture showroom the future of high-end audio? I certainly hope not, but on press/trade day at the L.A. show, I overheard several conversations which started something like this: "Hey, I have not seen you since you closed your store 3 years ago...". Speaking from direct experience, the last two occasions I was able to audition High-End audio equipment in the SF Bay Area, including Single Ended Triodes (SET), were at private residences turned showrooms. At HE 2006 two of the more promising rooms were brought to us by a local L.A. high-end store which again, is run out of the owner's home. Is the living room or converted garage the new home of high-end audio?
Meanwhile back at the Scandinavian ranch, the B&O business model has provided them with the ability to lease retail space in some of the priciest zip codes including San Francisco's Union Square and Rodeo Drive in LA.
At HE 2006 five rooms intentionally demonstrated that when it comes to high-end audio, the arguments of Form vs. Function and Style vs. Substance can be replaced with an equation of Form + Function + Style + Substance = "Lifestyle + Hi Fi."
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| A San Fancisco loft could happily house Cain and Cain speakers driven by an Almarro amplifier. |
The first stop of on our Lifestyle+ tour of HE 2006 would fit nicely in a loft in San Francisco's Media Gulch - 20' ceilings, brick walls with a web of seismic iron. 100-year-old California redwood floors which contrast nicely with the light oak of a pair of
Cain and Cain's new I-Bib horns.
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| Cain and Cain's I-Bib loudspeaker and subwoofer. |
About the height of Cain and Cain's Abby, but rather than a totem pole wedge the new speaker is a squared off monolith. The only tapering is at the bottom of the rear, which is finished with an unusual scallop pattern, which I suspect is more than an exercise in style. This is the right speaker for listening to Neko Case or Hope Sandoval. Turn on the sub and I bet it will even work with Portishead. Just the speakers to look at as well as listen to. As expected, the cabinetry was beautiful with the raised wooden brow framing the full range driver. Pricing was unavailable but should fall between the Abby ($1500) and I-Ben ($5500).
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| Almarro's single-ended pentode integrated amp will soon come in an iPod-white finish. |
What made this a Lifestyle+ setup was the overall intent of the room which was established by the choice of electronics including an iPod-white
Almarro A205 A MKII 5 W single-ended pentode (SEP) integrated amplifier. Pricing was estimated as a $100 up-charge over the basic finish A205 which only sets you back $800. Availability is slated for this Summer and may include some additional improvements to the base unit.
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| Almarro amp with matching keyboard and Mac mini. |
While I did not hear this part of their demo, the intention was to upconvert I-Tunes from an iPod or a Mac Mini through a $1500
Sherwood Newcastle Preamp/Processor. During my short room visit, a show-quality
Esoteric CD Drive/DA combo were spinning the tunes which sounded great. This was by far the killer bargain set-up of the show and we look forward to doing a full review of the newly announced Almarro amplifier in the near future.
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| Wintering in Palm Spring? Deck out your digs with the likes of Zu Audio, ModWright and AUDIOPAX. |
Next stop is Palm Springs modern - 50's low slung ranches, terrazzo floors, black-bottom lap pools reflecting the sun-warmed desert mountains. Just the place to sit back with a Grey Goose martini and enjoy the coming Winter while listening to the White Stripes on
Zu Audio's Definition horns, in a very optional mirror red finish. The Palm Springs desert seems to be the right environment for this Ogden, Utah-based company, which has been making the rounds of the audio circuit for a half-dozen years.
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| The Zu suite. |
For this trip, they must have towed a trailer of equipment because they had both their Druids and Definition playing in an enormous suite-sized room. The Definition setup included two of the acclaimed $14,000 mirror finished
AUDIOPAX Reference 88 mono KT88-based 30W single-ended triodes (SETs) with Timberlock. Think Dualite toasters with vacuum tubes, designed and handcrafted in Brazil, with the ability to "dial in" the amps to the speakers. The control was courtesy of
ModWright Instruments who brought a prototype of their new SWL9.0E preamp.
The disc player started life as a Sony 9000ES and then received the ModWright Signature Truth mod which is so extensive that a trip to their website is warranted (yes those are vacuum tubes sticking out of the top). Cabling was naturally all Zu and power was controlled courtesy of $8000 worth of power conditioning products courtesy of
Richard Gray's Power Company.
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| Zu's Definition monolothic speaker - all that were missing were those crazy monkeys. |
Zu's Definition is a statement, even without the hot-rod red finish. Standing 49" x 12.5" x 13" and weighing 120 lbs, the styling is modern retro-vintage monolith. The 3/4" billet aluminum bullet tweeter is closely flanked by two 10" full-range drivers. Yep, full-range. The tweeter connects directly to the woofers and uses a shelf crossover to provide a frequency response to 25khz. This cut Meg White vocals with an air and sibilance, which I have come to expect and seek out from full-range horns. The surprise came at the end of the song when the pipe organ and base had weight and depth. This comes courtesy of three 10" internally powered rear firing woofers which Zu states is good to 16 Hz. Nice. Almost $10,000 nice in a basic flat finish? Hard to say for certain, because while a Palm Springs fantasy would have a nice slab floor and sound treatment, the Airport Sheraton does not.
Overall, the Definition is a speaker which deserves a proper audition. Friday night show attendees had the opportunity to hear Zu in Home Theater mode providing the sound for Pixar's "Incredibles." Then the Zu party really swung into gear with DJs spinning into the night using ten Zu Druids stacked on custom Zu push pull woofers for high-end sound drafted for reinforcement duty. Again, not the best environment for critical listening, but probably the best locations for some fun listening, which is after all Zu's mission in the music "Revolution". Animation, House, and Trance. Definitely a Lifestyle+ setup.
Continue with
Part II of Bob's "Best of Home Entertainment 2006" coverage.
More coverage from Home Entertainment 2006:
