 |
| January 1, 2008 Ultra Audio's Product of the Year for 2007 -- Rockport Technologies Altair Loudspeakers
It is therefore of utmost importance that you choose your speakers carefully. If you’re going to be fully satisfied with your hi-fi system, it is that purchase, above all others, that you’ve got to get right. Pick a great speaker that couples well to your room and build your system around it. That motto has served me well for many years. The Rockport Technologies Altair was designed and manufactured by Andy Payor in Rockport, Maine. I was not prepared for the experience, in late 2006, of going to Rockport’s listening rooms and becoming acquainted with the Altair -- it is engineered and built to stunning perfection. I knew I had to hear it in my Music Vault listening room. A review was arranged. Although my experience with loudspeakers is broad -- I’ve heard, and in some cases owned, what many consider to be the finest -- the Altair shook my foundations. It was at once the best loudspeaker ever to grace my listening room, and the single most impressive audio product I’d ever written about. Fast-forward to the present. I’ve had the Altairs in my listening room for about six months now, and my admiration for them has only grown stronger. When I’m listening to music through them, I am in awe of what they can do. They get all of the audiophile bits right, of course, but more important, they blend all of those elements into a whole better than any other speaker I’ve heard. The Altair is a complete product in other senses as well: You’ll experience no greater pride of ownership than with the Altair, because its construction and finish quality are beyond reproach. In fact, its build quality ranks at the top of all audio products I’ve ever seen. And for a build-quality nut such as I, that’s saying something. As you can tell from my glowing description, there was no contest this year -- and this was a good year for Ultra Audio in terms of products reviewed. At $89,500 USD per pair, the Rockport Technologies Altair is expensive -- but it’s a product like no other. It’s simply spectacular, and easily Ultra Audio’s Product of the Year for 2007. ...Jeff Fritz
Ultra Audio is part of the SoundStage! Network. |
No link of the audio-system chain
shapes what you hear more than the loudspeaker does. The speaker is the device that
actually produces that physical phenomenon called sound, transforming the electrical
signal delivered by the amplifier into soundwaves. In my experience, that metamorphosis is
where the magic happens or it doesn’t. It’s where the rubber meets the road, so
to speak. 