CCI at the AXPONA Chicago Show in Two Weeks!

Colleen and I are gearing for our biggest trade show yet...two complete rooms at the upcoming AXPONA show in Chicago. Chicago hasn't had a high-end audio trade show since the Winter CES was cancelled fifteen years ago, so everyone is expecting a huge and enthusiastic turnout.

Here's a rundown of our two rooms and the systems we will be featuring:

In room 817 we will be featuring the Unison Research Simply Italy integrated amplifier coupled with the new Unison Research Unico Upower booster amp–48 wpc channel of beautiful single-ended EL34 sound. We will also have the Unison Research CDE CD player, the Opera Quinta loudspeakers, all on a Trellis rack from Splintr Designs and cabling and power management courtesy of MIT.



The second CCI room at the Chicago AXPONA show, room 813, will feature an extraordinary system that includes the US debut of the PureAudio Control preamplifier and the PureAudio Reference monoblock amplifiers, along with the outstanding PureAudio Vinyl phono preamplifier we debuted at RMAF last October. We will also be using a SOTA Millenium turntable with a Soundsmith cartridge, and all cables and power management will be provided by WyWires. The loudspeakers are the incredible My Audio Design Duke Royal Limited which appeared at CES.



Special thanks goes to Arnold Martinez of Tweak Studio, our Chicago dealer for Unison Research and My Audio Design. Arnold has been instrumental in helping us organize and run both rooms, while at the same time he's planning a grand opening for his new store at the Hyatt Regency--which will be held right before the show. Colleen and I will be attending that event as well, and I'll have more information soon.

Another visit to Whetstone...with the PureAudio Vinyl phono preamp

First things first...Colleen Cardas and I just announced that we are now the US distributors of PureAudio of New Zealand. We have been so impressed with the Vinyl phono preamplifier I talked about last night that we jumped at the opportunity to represent this brand in the US. We also set the US retail price of this unit at $4500.

The day before we made the announcement, we brought the Vinyl over to Brian Di Frank at Whetstone Audio, our Austin dealer for Unison Research. Brian had already heard the buzz about PureAudio months ago, and when I posted on Facebook that we had the unit, he immediately responded "I want to hear it!" So we scheduled a visit and put the Vinyl into his showroom system that consisted of a Line Magnetic integrated amplifier, Well-Tempered Amadeus turntable, Dynavector 20X2 cartridge and Harbeth HL5 speakers.

After just a few tunes, Brian was impressed with the performance of the Vinyl. I'm going to give him a few days with it, and then get it back into my system so I can keep breaking in that Transfiguration Phoenix cartridge in time for the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in October. In the Vinyl's absence, I went back to my old Lehmann Audio Black Cube SE phono pre. (I had to give up my Unison Research Phono One phono preamp for a couple of months so it could be reviewed in TONEAudio.) While the Lehmann is my favorite phono preamp in the $1000 to $1500 range, phono stages such as the Phono One and the Vinyl simply trounce it in terms of texture, 3-D imaging, deep bass response and detail.

Just a few hours after we left the Vinyl at Whetstone, Brian blogged about it on his website. He called it "flippin' great!" We agree. We're so enamored with the Vinyl that we decided to take it to the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest as well, where it will be mated with the Unison Research Giro turntable, Transfiguration Phoenix cartridge, the new Opera Grand Mezza speakers and a Unison Research amplifier TBD (either the Simply Italy or the Sinfonia, or maybe both).

Transfiguration Phoenix Has Stopped By for a Visit...

It's been an interesting week at CCI headquarters. First we get the PureAudio Vinyl phono preamplifier in for evaluation (and after four days, it's getting better and better), and now I just received a Transfiguration Phoenix cartridge from Bob Clarke. Bob runs Profundo, the US distributor of Heed, Trenner & Friedl, VivA and Transfiguration, and we're teaming up with him, as well as Dan Muzquiz of Blackbird Audio, for the upcoming Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in October.

Even though we're sharing a room with Bob, we'll each have a separate system that shows off our latest gear. Profundo will be showcasing such new arrivals as the Trenner & Friedl Pharaoh loudspeakers and the recently updated Phoenix, and Colleen and I will be showing off the Unison Research Simply Italy integrated and perhaps the upcoming Opera Grand Mezza loudspeakers. It'll be similar to the Hootenanny we had last year at Whetstone Audio, where Bob and I took turns playing music, but we've already agreed to forego the "you've been served" back-and-forth musical challenges.

Here's where the Transfiguration comes in: Profundo doesn't import a turntable (although Bob is very fond of Basis, a US company), and CCI doesn't import a cartridge other than the Unison Research UN1 that comes with the Giro turntable. The UN1 is a fantastic cartridge for the money, but it's basically a $550 moving-magnet. We wanted to up the ante for RMAF and feature a first-class analog rig, so we're pooling our resources and going with a much more ambitious moving-coil. I've been given the job of breaking this Phoenix in. I know, it's a hard job but I'll manage.

I'll mount this tomorrow and give initial impressions in a few days. I'm expecting great things, especially with the Phoenix matched to that utterly fantastic phono stage from New Zealand.

PureAudio Pure Vinyl Phono Preamplifier Review at AudioEnz

This review from AudioEnz of the PureAudio Pure Vinyl Phono Preamplifier is cool for two reasons. First, we know Gary Morrison of PureAudio and he's already told us all about his new New Zealand-based company. Gary was the head of Plinius for many years and was responsible for some of their most celebrated designs, such as the 8150 and 8200 integrated amplifiers. PureAudio will be featuring more ambitious designs than Plinius; the phono preamplifier will probably cost around $4500 or so when it reaches the US. PureAudio also features monoblock amplifiers (running in class A) and a preamplifier. As you can see, the casework on these products is simply stunning.

Second, the review appeared in the New Zealand audio mag AudioEnz. For those of you who have followed the Vinyl Anachronist over the years, you'll know I wrote for AudioEnz for a couple of years. Michael Jones was a great boss, and I enjoyed working for him. It's funny, but people started assuming that I was from New Zealand for a while. Nope, I was an American who happened to write for a New Zealand magazine. I knew Michael from a couple of audio discussion groups, and we bonded over our shared befuddlement over the popularity of the Technics SL-1200.

Perfect Sound Forever, who has published my Vinyl Anachronist column since 1998, was going through some turbulent times including a temporary format switch and a new editor. For a couple of months, PSF disappeared and I assumed it was gone forever. I didn't want the column to die, so I approached Michael. He happily kept it going, but there were a couple of changes--I had to write about products that were available in New Zealand. That became a challenge over the ensuing months, since not everything I wanted to talk about was available in New Zealand. While the New Zealand audio scene was very active and represented by such well-known brands as Perraux, Plinius and a few others, this American was constantly searching for relevant things to write about.

When PSF reappeared in its original format, I started writing two separate Vinyl Anachronist columns for each publication. I found that I was quickly running out of content for columns. When AudioEnz went on hiatus after Michael had eye surgery, we let the association quietly dissolve. But I'm very glad to see the new, refreshed AudioEnz back online. It's also great to see them give such a rave review to Gary's phono preamplifier as well. Or, as reviewer Michael Wong concludes, "The Vinyl squarely hits all its design targets and in my experience is the finest phono stage ever made in New Zealand (and given the directions taken by other local manufacturers, is likely to hold the top spot for a long time to come)."

Congratulations, Gary! Great review.