Ultra Audio

In April 2009, when I reviewed Synergistic Research’s Tesla Apex interconnects and speaker cables, I concluded that they were among the best cables I’d heard regardless of price -- and I had heard more than a few. However, as a result of nothing more than my own carelessness and the need to begin my next review, I failed to give the Teslas the Reviewers’ Choice award they deserved. I remedied that failing two months later in a follow-up review, and wondered what Synergistic could come up with next. 

I got my answer at the 2011 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, when the company’s chief designer, Ted Denney III, released their new Element models. At that show, Denney told me that the Element cables represent an “enormous” jump in performance over the Teslas, which are to be discontinued. Knowing firsthand just how good the Teslas are, I was skeptical of this claim. Clearly, a review was in order. 

Thinking outside the box. Some designers do it, others don’t. Gabi and Edwin van der Kley, the husband-and-wife duo behind the Dutch sister companies Crystal Cable and Siltech, have coupled a solidly engineering-based design approach with a questioning spirit that leads them beyond the status quo. Whether it’s a novel amalgam of silver and gold conductors, or a cable-design philosophy based on the principle of thinner is better, the van der Kleys favor elegant solutions. Known principally for the cable offerings of their two companies, Edwin has also explored what’s possible in electronic design in a limited series of Siltech preamplifiers and amplifiers.

In 2008, with its glass-cabineted Arabesque, Crystal Cable introduced to the world Gabi’s ideal full-range loudspeaker: elegant in appearance, exceptional in sound. Besides its transparent enclosure, the most obvious characteristic of the floorstanding, mirror-imaged Arabesques is their unorthodox shape in cross-section, which gave them their name. (From Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition: "arabesque: an ornament or style that employs flower, foliage, or fruit and sometimes animal and figural outlines to produce an intricate pattern of interlaced lines.") The original Arabesque ($65,000 USD per pair) was reviewed in Ultra Audio in 2009, was designated a Select Component, and then received the SoundStage! Network’s top honor: Product of the Year. 

At this point, The World’s Best Audio System 2012 has been well documented. Nevertheless, having just spent three jam-packed days flying from Los Angeles to North Carolina and back for a engaging and engrossing Saturday “happening,” I’m happy to share some of my impressions. 

Commitment. On reflection, I remain amazed by the sheer amount of effort expended by everyone involved to make TWBAS 2012 such a success. Following his decision to have another go at assembling an all-hands-on-deck supersystem, Jeff Fritz spent countless hours researching leads, contemplating complementary components, and balancing the already available against the potential of cutting-edge opportunities still in process. And that was just the beginning. 

From the invention of Bowers & Wilkins’ famous Matrix enclosure system to the development and design of the British company's inspiring Nautilus loudspeaker -- a groundbreaking icon of industrial design that looks as fresh today as it did nearly 20 years ago -- loudspeaker designer Laurence Dickie has assembled an enviable portfolio of innovation, and established a reputation for pushing the performance envelope with creative solutions. In 2001, following an introduction by Robert Trunz, former president of B&W, Dickie joined forces with Philip Guttentag to form Vivid Audio. The first Vivid loudspeaker models, the B1 and K1, were introduced in 2004, and continue to form the core of the company’s Oval series. These and all subsequent Vivid Audio speakers are notable in part for having been designed, from drivers to enclosures, entirely in-house, and manufactured at Vivid Audio’s factory in South Africa.

Earlier this year, at the Consumer Electronics Show, I had a conversation with Michael Børresen, president and chief designer of the Danish loudspeaker manufacturer Raidho Acoustics. He made one specific point about his company that, while simple in concept, struck me as alarmingly important in understanding his loudspeaker-design philosophy. Børresen said that whereas most companies buy raw drivers from third-party vendors but make their cabinets in-house, he decided early on that Raidho would do the opposite. He realized that while cabinet-making capability is readily available, designing and building drive-units from the ground up would give him the absolute technical control he needed to make Raidho speakers sound precisely as he envisioned them. Basically, he didn’t want to outsource what is arguably a loudspeaker’s most important component: its drivers. 

That conversation hit me like a ton of lead. Why don’t more speaker manufacturers actually make the things that make the sound -- the drivers -- themselves? Based on my experience, I’ve concluded that the answer is one of two things: Either they don’t know how to design drivers, or they don’t have the capital to invest in the manufacturing capability. 

One thing was certain from my conversation with Børresen: Raidho speakers are designed from the ground up and the inside out, starting with the drive-units. But then there are a number of technical elements that are important to Raidho. Read on . . .

Impulse!/Universal Music/Analogue Productions CIPJ 74 SA
Format: Hybrid SACD

Musical Performance: ***1/2
Sound Quality: ****1/2
Overall Enjoyment: ****

The posthumous reputation of jazz singer Johnny Hartman (1923-1983) got a boost in 1995, when Clint Eastwood chose some of his recordings for the soundtrack to The Bridges of Madison County. Hartman had never been a household name. Hardcore jazz fans probably know him best for John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, the sole album by the saxophonist to feature a singer. Coltrane knew Hartman from their brief stints in Dizzy Gillespie’s late-1940s big band, and in 1963 he brought the singer to Impulse! Records, where Hartman would record two more LPs.