Trenner & Friedl ART monitors in the house!

Here are some more pics of the Trenner & Friedl ART monitors, courtesy of...me! They just arrived via FedEx a little while ago, and now they're breaking in in my listening room as I write. I won't give you my initial impressions yet other than the fact that they sounded awesome right out of the box.

These babies took forever to unpack because they are shipped like the precious little gems that they are. The ARTs aren't double-boxed or even triple-boxed--they're quadruple-boxed and even shrink-wrapped. Needless to say, they travelled from Austria to El Cerrito, California (into the hands of US distributor Bob Clarke of Profundo Audio--thanks for everything, Bob!) to my digs in central Texas without a single mark, scratch or ding. They are as pristine as the day they were inspected and tested by Trenner & Friedl.

By the time they were unpacked, my listening room was a mess! As you can see from the pictures, these ARTs are finished in a rich, textured cherry veneer with a front faceplate made from black Corian (it's marked "volcano" on the box!).

Note how nicely my Cardas Twinlink speaker cables fit onto the rear terminals. That's because the ARTs are internally wired with Cardas cable as well. So if you buy Trenner & Friedl speakers, it makes sense to continue using Cardas cable externally as well for the best results! (Note that Cardas cabling already provides the best results in most systems.)

So I'm going to grab some appropriate stands, let these gorgeous little critters break in for a couple of hundred hours and then I'll sit down and start some serious listening. I'll be posting reviews of the ARTs as well as the Cardas cabling in the next few weeks. Until then, I'll probably be rediscovering my entire record collection with these massive improvements to my system.

Special thanks to Colleen Cardas of Cardas Audio and Bob Clarke of Profundo for getting the ARTs into my hot little hands. There are some truly great people in high-end audio.