this year my Lubiana Hi-Fi
Show will contain more pictures than before, because I had better
camera (a digital reflex at least!).
This year I enjoyed the Show
even more than before, because there were many good sounding rooms.
The first room I present you
is that of Franc Kuzma:
This
year Kuzma had his top system, including Karan monobloks and the
huge Nola speakers with open baffle mid-highs.
The
turntable was the Kuzma XXL with 3 motors and two arms. Of course
the Air Line tangential arms was playing great!
The
cartridge was a very niceZYX R1000Sigma.
The
phono and line preamplifiers were two stratosferic Zanden!
Kuzma
was presenting a new clamp with “rotating leds” and
the VTA fine tuning base of the new tonearm, which will probably
be presented at the next CES (01/2008).
This
is the new Kuzma Vinvac record cleaning machine (only 440 E).
A room with “natural
sound” was from the other slovenian turntable maker Mirko
Smolic (SM Audio):
Mirko
Smolic was using the same Sonus Faber Guarnieri as last year,
with an improved version of his turntable number “2”.
The
tonearm was the standard Helius Omega (tetrahedral bearings).
The
cartridge was a simple Benz Micro.
Mirko
Smolic while keeping the very heavy plate of his third turntable.
The
tube electronics were all from the serbian NAT company.
The
GE 211 was from US Army: the good ones!
Centering
the hole is not always so easy...
The
Smolic “3” turntable with Helius Omega Silver Ruby
and My Sonic cartridge was unfortunately not playing.
This
is the bearing of the new turntable.
After the AZ Adagio of the
last year, also this year NEL Audio was able to surprise us with
another new interesting product: the Emerald
Physics CS2. This is an open baffle project, with dipole emission
under 1KHz and a DSP based active crossover able to correct the
answer for the room acoustic. The high way is a compression driver
loaded by a wavelenght (why not colored it in Ferrari red?). NEL
sells them for 3.3 kE including the microphone and its tripod.
Under
the KR Huge Triode (22W) there it the DSP active crossover, which
corrects the signal between the preamplifier and the power amp.
Of course you can do a by-amping.
The new Acoustic Zen
Adagio Junior have the same drivers of the floorstanding version,
that is two ceramic woofers in D'Appolito and a ring ribbon
tweeter.
All that goods for only 2.5 kE!
The
Smolic “1” with Helius Omega Ruby (3.2 kE) and
Yamamoto YC-02 cartridge(650 E).
The
phono and line preamp were ModWright 9.0SE (2.1 kE) and 36.5 (3.5
kE).
In the Nordost-Burmester
room there was a Nordost show: we had to listen from the Blue Heaven
to the Valalla and finally to the new Odino cables!
Very
good CD player and integrated amp from Burmester with the Nordost
AC “conditioner” was the patners from the REALLY
expensive Odino cables.
The
new Burmester B25 3-ways surprised me for the large soundstage
and good resolution. Carbon fiber woofers and ribbon tweeter. The
6 kE seems not exagerated.
I don't remember the name of the good stand speaker
with the white ceramic woofer and ribbon (yep again!) tweeter but
I remember its price: 9.5 kE!
During the cable turnover we were able to test the
Faber signal (blue, above the Odino) but it was so good that the
Nordost guy had to switch to the “dark” Sonus Faber
Cremona speakers to hide it.
Faber spying the Nordost Odino!
And now some miscellanea
from different rooms:
The
big Vklop room had top-level Burmeter electronics and AvantGarde
horn loudspeakers. As usual the alcohoolic tax in the air was
simply unacceptable.
Who
really knows how these big Burmester can sound? I had not the
opportunity to listen true audiophile music...
Canyon Audio was showing a nice Air Tight system
with Wadia CD-player and Living Voice speakers.
Son
Et Image (Zagreb) was showing the Marten “Miles”
ceramic-driven loudspeakers (10.5 kE) controlled by the ASR
Emitter battery powered (13 kE) and an YBA CD-player (will be
replaced by a much better Metronome). Good cables from
Kubala-Sosna. The sound was too “dry” for my taste...
Audio
Cinema Art (Zagreb) was showing the Reference VTL system (>40kE)
with Wilson Watt/Puppy speakers (30 kE) and a big Wadia
CD-player.
An
interesting side view.
The
McIntosh family was driving a big Dynaudio loudspeaker.
Pear
Audio speakers well controlled by Jolida.
The
nottingham turntable and Jolida monobloks.
This is the end... of our
money!
Visitors
seem satisfied of the Ljubljana Hi-Fi Show.
The
slovenian record prices are much more inviting than the italian
ones...
A
good Hi-Fi Show must end with a good dinner: in this case we
visited the Spajza, just under the Ljubljana castle.