We live surrounded by sound, and while what we’re hearing at any given moment might be noisy or pleasing, the sound is by definition perfect - an unmediated experience coupling our surroundings to our brains. We will hear as much as we try to, depending on our level of attention, practice, and physiological impairment.
When humans organize the world’s sounds into works of art we call it music, and when music is fixed to a recording (most of the music we hear in our lives) it will reach us through modes that are by definition imperfect - a compromise from the original on a spectrum from almost inaudible to appalling. High fidelity audio aims to transport the recording across time and space with as much realism, life and detail as possible. And when I get the chance to be around the highest of high end, and when music I know and love is resolved in the air, the heart overtakes the cortex and I’m tempted to say it’s “perfect” even as I know that’s not quite possible.
I think all this while still vibrating from possibly the best listening session I’ve ever been part of - a benediction ending my two days in Raleigh, NC at Audio Advice Live, the second annual industry conference put on by a large hi-fi dealer based here and Charlotte. I’d never been to a hi-fi show before and this was in easy reach. I’m so glad I came out, because of the insights I’ve gleaned and the records I just heard. More on that session in a moment after some impressions of the show to that point.
Arriving on Saturday, I was amused because I know this hotel well. It’s one of the two HQ hotels for the IBMA World of Bluegrass, which I’ve attended almost every year since it moved to Raleigh in 2013. I even stayed here one year and I’ve filed several IBMA Awards stories from its lobby wifi. Still, I had to get oriented by walking around, and thus I stumbled into a demo that I thought would be harder to find or get into - the North American unveiling of a new loudspeaker called the Hyphn by Monitor Audio, a British company marking its 50th anniversary with a radical design that I couldn’t describe if I had all day. It looks crazy and sounds stunning. I walked in just in time for “A Case Of You” by Joni Mitchell, and I slipped inside the glimmer of her dulcimer and the fluidity of her voice. She can sound a bit shiny on my system, but this was warm and rich. As rich as you’d have to be to afford these $80,000 speakers. But I came for the unobtainium, so I was off to a good start.
The crowd was a bit more diverse than I expected. It was pleased to see women, young people, and people of color circulating, because the audiophile world has been made of overwhelmingly older white men forever. But I heard some industry energy being directed at a wider audience. A rep from JBL at a panel on industry trends said a company goal was “to bring affordable performance to everybody.” We also heard from a dreadlocked rep from the Italian company Sonus faber who said “my mission in life is to bring the cool back to hi-fi.”
Truly affordable gear wasn’t thick on the ground at Audio Advice, but I did see one example. In one of the suites I got a briefing on an integrated system by Pro-Ject that offers a very well-made turntable, full-service amplifier/DAC (including Bluetooth and TV digital input), cables, and speakers in a stylish choice of colors for $2,000 all-in (pictured). That’s about what I tell folks to expect to spend if they are assembling a brand new, quality stereo from scratch, and while I didn’t hear the system, the credibility of Pro-Ject as a company bodes well for it. The whole setup can sit on a sideboard, and the marketing campaign seems targeted at younger urban dwellers.
But this industry is able to innovate because of the high end, and that’s what I came for anyway. I got to hear the Bowers & Wilkins 801 D4s, one of the most famous and coveted speakers in the world. The $38,000 pair is dramatic and unmistakable with a curvaceous, robot-like shape with a tweeter that sits like an eye balanced on top in its own tapering aluminum tube. I was astonished when the rep in the room dialed up “Ekuté” from the 2021 Notes With Attachments album by Blake Mills and Pino Palladino, an absolute favorite of mine with many layers of subtle sound to resolve, and boy did they resolve. (There are B&W bookshelf speakers at the entry level price of about $700 per pair, and set up correctly with the right amplifier they’d satisfy most people.)
In another room I heard a system made entirely of McIntosh components with their famous blue glow. The chunky amplifiers warmed digital music beautifully and handed it off gracefully to the company’s new (unreleased) ML1 speakers, which have a traditional shape, a vintage style, and an enthralling sound. But the most surprising speakers I heard over the weekend, speakers that sent me back on the second day to confirm my feelings, were the Solano F287 floor standers by ELAC. They were not sexy - plain and short black pillars (pictured), weirdly small, with two 5-inch drivers per side. But they bloomed with transparent, unstressed sound and bass that seemed physically impossible. Granted they’re $4,000 a pair, but in this world, that’s value.
It was getting on toward the close of the show and my only complaint was that I’d heard only digital sources and no vinyl, but that was about to change. On Saturday afternoon I had the good fortune to meet veteran audio journalist Michael Fremer, an absolute guru of analog sound who runs his recently revived Tracking Angle online journal and YouTube channel. For a fellow in high demand he took some nice time with me talking about an idea I’ve had for exposing more folks to quality audio and some opportunities writing for his site. He told me that on Sunday he’d be hosting a listening session with some private stash records in the Sonus faber suite.
I’d spent a good bit of time in the room the day before, so I’d heard their system with its gorgeous-in-every-way Sonus faber Stradivari G2 speakers, a big 40th anniversary redesign of a company classic that retails for $50,000. They’d read my mind and played some Julian Lage, and I ‘bout had a heart attack. But on Sunday, Fremer stepped up to an exotic, top-of-the-line Pro-Ject turntable with a stack of special LPs from his collection and let a group of us hear the epitome of vinyl playback.
The first one that got me in the heart was a 1987 LP by Irish uillean pipes player Davy Spillane called Atlantic Bridge with collaborators Béla Fleck and Jerry Douglas. It wasn’t a rarity, but I was thrilled because I have that album on cassette and wore it out almost 30 years ago. It was fun to hear it roar back into my life with such crystal clarity. A recent Blue Note album called The Source by the late Afro-pop drummer Tony Allen was right in the wheelhouse of my current listening. I have the same double LP, all-analog set and I love it. Sure, on the Sonus faber speakers it had more life and presence than I can coax out of my system, but it didn’t make me frustrated or anything. Moments like that give you even more respect for the recording itself, because you discover so much in there. I was also dazzled by a Tony Bennett Columbia record from the early 60s that showed how good early stereo pressings sounded and how they can act like time machines.
Then came the whipped cream/cherry treatment for the whole experience. Unlike a lot of middle-aged white guy audiophiles, I don’t tend to reach for classic rock for my listening pleasure. It’s all fine, and to each his own (yes, his). I’ve just heard the songs on too many bar PAs and have other priorities. But Fremer unsleeved several rare pressings in a row that proved me wrong. Fortunately, two were by The Who, an indisputably awesome band. “Baba O’Riley” came from an unreleased disc made by one of Fremer’s close colleagues using an approach called Ultra High Quality Recording (UHQR) that involves special vinyl and etching the record at 45 RPM, which gives the record player more detail to read with the stylus. The song’s synthesizer loops were enthralling, and when the guitars and drums hit, the music fairly exploded with dynamics.
“Pinball Wizard” was even more rare in that it wasn’t a pressing but a unique acetate master, which means it hadn’t been transferred to a plate and then pressed, the usual process that loses a bit of generational quality. This was the most vivacious, revealing recording of a classic I’ve ever heard. The genius of the production in all its carefully composed layers was laid bare, and yet the music’s thrust and canyon-deep timbres didn’t leave room for cognitive analysis. It wasn’t played especially loud (just over 90 dB in the room) but it felt as loud as the Big Bang without being stressful - a gorgeous, full body impact. God help me, Fremer even played “Stairway To Heaven” from another special pressing, and that got me in the gut as well, though I thought I’d never need to hear it again. That’s what these amazing music re-animation systems can do.