Trellis Equipment Rack from Splintr Designs

I was able to borrow the Trellis equipment rack we used in the Unison/Opera room at CES last week. We're using two Trellis racks at our next trade show--the AXPONA show in Chicago in March--so it made sense to break down the CES rack and take it back to Texas for a couple of months. While we struggled to make the entire rack and hardware fit into the two smallish supplied boxes (we forgot to watch the guys from Splintr Designs unpack the rack and set it up), once I got back to Texas and unpacked it I found the rack incredibly easy to reassemble.

The Trellis racks are unusually attractive and well-designed. Because they are manufactured with a CNC machine, tolerances are tight and everything fits together with uncommon precision. Each shelf insert, made from heavy wood, has small rubber plugs at the corners to decouple it from the rack. Small cones are then used to control vibrations between each section of the rack, and larger, beautifully machined cones rest under the bottom section, which can also be used as an amp stand.

After unpacking all the pieces, I had the rack assembled and leveled in less than ten minutes. This particular rack is in maple. The Trellis equipment racks start at $1950, so with the upgrades this four-shelf rack will retail for roughly $2900. Splintr makes the Trellis racks in a wide variety of finishes, including some very exotic types, all which will increase the price. The shelf inserts are also available in a choice of woods, manufactured rock and granite which again drives up the price. But while the Trellis racks may seem pricey to those still using Expedit furniture from IKEA for their sound systems, these racks are actually a great value compared to some high-end audio racks that can cost well into the five-figure range.

We used the Trellis racks at both CES and the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest last October, and the majority of show attendees commented that the prices were extremely reasonable. I did have one gentleman in Vegas ask me point-blank why the racks were so expensive. I started off by explaining the high cost of a CNC machine, and his eyes seem to glaze over. So I wound up saying "They're not expensive at all."

As you can see, the additional Trellis rack gives me a lot of flexibility in my listening room. I've had a ton of equipment flow in and out of my system in the weeks leading up to CES, and it's been a royal pain to store this equipment all over the house when it's not in use. Now I can just leave it all on the rack. I'm set to receive the new preamplifier and monoblock amplifiers from PureAudio in the next few days, and now I have the room for all those amps.

If you'd like more information about Splintr Designs and the Trellis equipment racks, just visit their website.

The Return of Moos Audio to CES

Last year I blogged about the MOOS Mini from MOOS Audio, a fantastic little speaker that is designed in Australia and built in the Scanspeak factory in Denmark. Using the finest Revelator drivers, these brightly-colored little speakers offered a big sound in a big room, a task at which small monitors usually fail. I heard a passive version last year, but I was told that these speakers would ultimately be active and feature a unique combination of features.

Well, a year has passed and the little MOOS has really matured into an exciting product that does so much for a relatively affordable price. While it looks pretty much the same as it did in January 2012, a lot of technology has been been packed inside such as multiple DACs, DSP anbd wireless capabilities. Since the Mini is now an active design, all you really need to add is a laptop and iTunes to achieve a truly high-end sound for the 21st century.

The sound quality of the MOOS has also improved considerably over the last year. In its passive version it was a competent and likable monitor speaker which projected a fairly deep and believable soundstage. In its full-tech guise, it offers sound quality that far surpasses anything I have heard from a wireless speaker. While it was possible to create static and break-up in one channel while walking directly in front of the speakers, it was brief and not too distracting. (Most of this was due to the huge amount of wi-fi saturation at CES, and would never happen in a home environment.) While sitting in the sweet spot, I heard nothing but clarity, detail with the right balance of warmth--something I consider rare for a product so jam-packed with technology.

The MOOS will be available soon in the US for $2500, which includes the wireless transmitter, a pair of speakers and all the goodies inside (which you can see in the photo to the left). I've been looking for a simple, elegant way to listen to downloads on my computer, and this is the best-sounding solution I've heard so far. You can find out more information on Moos Audio at http://www.moosaudio.com/.

Ready for CES 2013!

Today was set-up day for 2013, and like last year we were finished before noon in the Unison Research/Opera Loudspeakers/Cardas Audio/CCI room. In our main system we have the Unison Research Simply Italy integrated amplifier, Unison Research Unico Upower booster amplifier, Unico CDE CD player, Opera Mezza and Opera Grand Mezza loudspeakers. This is the US debut of the Upower, which can quadruple the output power of low-powered tube amplification without significantly changing the sonic signature of the original amp. So the 12wpc Simply Italy now becomes a 48wpc powerhouse that can work with most speakers.

CES starts tomorrow at 10am at the Venetian in Las Vegas, and I'll be taking more photographs and posting them later. The Unison/Opera room is 29-117, and the My Audio Design (MAD) room (which is sharing with Viola Audio and ZenSATI cables) is located on the next floor in room 30-228. Please stop by and say hellow to me, Colleen Cardas, Bartolomeo Nasta of Unison/Opera and Timothy Jung of MAD.

My Audio Design 1920S Loudspeakers

Does this speaker look familiar? Well, it should look like the My Audio Design 1920 loudspeaker I reviewed earlier this year, but in a gloss white finish. Same exact size, same drivers, same everything. Except this isn't the MAD 1920, it's the MAD 1920S, and it's slightly different than its little brother. As the MAD website says: "The 1920S is the signature version of our renowned 'World Standard' 1920 monitor. We have reconstructed the cabinet with a more advanced version of our proprietary DRC (Damping Resonance Control) and SWC technology. You can expect a sound that is smooth, open, natural, clear, detailed and unexaggerated. It all adds up to a package that is involving and coherent — like the original 1920 — but with more accuracy, clarity and even better bass."

In high-end audio, a "signature" version usually implies better parts, or a few tweaks here and there that lead to subtle yet noticeable improvements in the sound. But the difference between the 1920 and the 1920S is far from subtle. I don't want to take anything away from the 1920--it is a superb mini-monitor and an outstanding value--but I absolutely love the 1920S. It sounds so much bigger than the 1920 that it's hard to believe it only goes about 3 Hz deeper (55 Hz vs. 58 Hz). The price for this improvement is substantial--the 1920 is sold direct in the US from the MAD website for about $2575 (the price will vary slightly with the exchange rates), while the 1920S will retail in the US for $3450/pair. But it's worth it.

Of the three MAD speakers I've played with this week--the $48,000 Duke Royal Limiteds, the $11,000 Grand MS Maestro Supreme and now the 1920S--the latter pair is by far the most surprising. It's hard to listen to a $48K pair of loudspeakers without having extraordinarily high expectations. But these tiny little speakers shocked me at first listen. They sounded great right out of the box. They retain the smoothness and the refinement of all the other MAD speakers, but they excel at disappearing into the room and creating the type of soundstage that seems to expand well beyond the boundaries of my listening room. With an efficiency of 90dB, they also seemed to be the perfect match for the 12wpc Unison Research Simply Italy integrated amplifier. (Today I also plugged in the Unison Upower, a booster amp that quadruples the power to 48wpc.)

This is the last MAD speaker I get to play with before we head off to CES next week. I've had a lot of fun playing with all these goodies, and it will be tough to pack them up and send them on their way.

My Audio Design Grand MS Maestro Supreme Loudspeakers

Speakers, speakers, speakers. I have no less than four pairs of speakers that I need to break in before CES next month. Fortunately those $48,000 MAD Duke Royal Limited speakers were just used at a trade show in Hong Kong, so they're pretty much broken in. I spent two days listening to them, loving them, caressing those beautiful cabinets into the wee hours. They do everything you'd expect a speaker at that price point to do--bottomless bass response, crystalline highs, extraordinary midrange. It's almost scary that they do it all while being surprisingly compact and lightweight. Most $50K speakers resemble coffins and weigh hundreds of pounds; I could pick the Dukes up by myself and move them around.

Now I'm playing with a more modest design from MAD--the $11,000 Grand MS Maestro Supreme--and they're larger and heavier than the Dukes. They lack the exquisite cabinetry of their big brothers as you can see, although they are still obviously made with great care and skill. The MS features the proprietary MAD SFC coaxial drivers which are designed to be coherent and offer exceedingly low levels of distortion. The crossovers use pure silver solder, 99.99997% pure copper cabling and "ESA silver diamond" capacitors.

Compared to the Royal Duke, these speakers don't quite plumb the same depths and are slightly less dynamic, but let's face it--the former speaker is quite a tough act to follow (and more than four times the price). Plus, the Supremes still needs some break-in before I can evaluate them fairly. As it stands, they image like crazy and possess a silky, extended treble that's addictive.

After this, I still have a pair of Opera Mezzas to break-in, as well as another pair of MAD 1920s that I haven't even removed from the box. Plus I have a Unison Research Simply Italy to warm up, and we have yet to receive the Unison Research Unico Upower booster amp from Italy. The Upower quadruples the power of low-powered tube amplifiers up to 100wpc, so the Simply Italy will go from 12wpc to 48wpc. This will be the first Upower in the US, and it's making its debut at CES (in Room 29-117). I'll have more info on the MAD room in a few days. Until then, I'm switching out components and listening to everything from Sam Cooke to Tool in an effort to get this equipment sounding its best.