Yes. It is for sale.
I’m fascinated by how the user interface for cars evolved into what it is today. Check out the switches under the seat.
There were more cars inside that are photographed in the Instagram version of this show report.
PranaFidelity $6,950 Vayu/fs speakers, $8,950 Purna amplifier, $4,500-$9,950 Purna preamp
I heard this system evolve over the days at the show. Always sounded good to me; however they did put a lot of work into optimizing the in-room bass response. So much so that on the final day, when these photos were taken, I heard somebody playing really loud music; even though all the doors to the exhibition rooms were closed.
Who could this be, I wondered, walking down the hallway past room after room, making all this racket? ….. though I had a suspicion… 🙂
Yep.
I walked up right in the middle of the room to take photos of the tape player, and it was really loud but really clear and controlled. This is kind of a spooky [aka awesome] effect – like your body is physically floating on the sound like it was in a wading pool, being gently pushed around by the swells and tides of the melody.
There are not that many good sounding speakers out there folks. This is one of them. And the speakers are woefully under-priced. In your experience, just how long do ridiculously low prices last before someone gets the idea that maybe they should perhaps price things comparable to what the competition charges? Consider yourself forewarned.
They were not stingy with playing the tape player here [nor was the Evolution Acoustics room. Let’s hear it for tape!]. Made the decent vinyl setup sound etched and, yes, digital.
Ampex ATR-102 reel-to-reel tape player reconditioned and modified by Bernie Grundman Mastering
Ampex ATR-102 reel-to-reel tape player has a bus with card slots so can add / remove recording capability and more
PranaFidelity $3,950 Model Fifty90 speakers
A full room
No, this is not Danny mugging for the camera. 😉
This was the forth room I visited with the big Canon camera and was featuring the Acapella Atlas speakers [the ones we had in our livingroom], our EmmLabs XDS1 CD / SACD player, and the new Acapella LaMusika integrated amplifier. Cables were mostly Acapella cables [a Nordost ODIN power cord was on the EmmLabs player most of the time].
It was a rare treat for us to have the manufacturer, in this case Hermann Winters of Acapella, do room setup and play DJ. We have a tendency to point the speakers a little more straight ahead, less toed in, for a slightly less aggressive sound but we are always willing to learn new tricks. People liked the sound here very much based on their comments, smiles and thank yous, even when played at a volume well above what I traditionally prefer :-).
Hermann always plays a favorite song of his when the show ends, in this case a Michael Jackson tune, and at about 50% higher volume than he had it for the rest of the show. It was LOUD, and clean, and awesome. Loved It.
If people would just play my favorites, like Michael Jackson in this case, 50% louder than they play everything else – I think I would really like these shows a heckuva lot more than I do already 🙂
The room size was 14 feet 6 inches by 17 feet. The speakers worked quite well in this somewhat small room. Hermann had me sit in the chair in the near-field sweet spot for half an hour. About 6 feet in front of the speakers. Worked for me.
Standing against the back wall also worked. This was a room where everywhere had good sound, even if not THE sweet spot.
This is probably the most-asked question about these speakers: how big does the room have to be and are there any positioning constraints. Well they certainly worked in this room, and would work in smaller rooms with perhaps some more effort made on positioning. The Acapella speakers are not ported so positioning very near walls, either the front or sides, works just fine. By request, here is a photo from one of our showrooms in 2004 of the larger Triolon speakers only a few inches from the wall [I remember it being about 6].
OK. Back to the show.
Neli in the Acapella Audio Arts room
The Acapella Atlas hyperspherical $98K horn speakers as they appeared using just the lighting in the room [no flash]
The $25K EmmLabs XDS1 SACD / CD player and Acapella LaMusika $116K integrated amplifier
Acapella LaMusika integrated amplifier
The EmmLabs XDS1 SACD / CD player and Acapella LaMusika integrated amplifier
