Just Arrived...Les Davis' CLD Prototypes

Mere moments after I finished my next Vinyl Anachronist column for Perfect Sound Forever, where I mentioned Les Davis' CLD material, I received a package in the mail from Australia with the first batch of footers that I will try to bring to CES next January. Les Davis sent me 32 pre-cut footers in two different sizes. The smaller round set, I presume, are for placing under the feet of components, and the larger square pieces are probably meant for placing under loudspeakers, especially between bookshelf speakers and their stands.

Again, these are prototypes, just the actual CLD sheets Les manufacturers and not a finished product. After hearing the sonic improvements of these sheets back in Sydney, I recommended that Les find a way to package them in an attractive way, perhaps sandwiched between pieces of wood, aluminum--anything attractive so that audiophiles won't mind placing them in a visible location on their equipment racks. My only concern was, of course, that the outer casing did not diminish the effects of the CLD material.

Now that I have them on my rack, I think they're visually interesting in their raw form. When you place them under amplifiers and CD players and basically anything in a big rectangular chassis, the thin footers disappear from view. When placed where they can easily be seen--in this case under my Unison Research Giro turntable and the Unison Research Phono One phono pre--they're still not obtrusive and I don't mind their presence at all. Perhaps an outer ring may enhance their appearance, but I don't want the price of these footers to increase exponentially just so they'll be pretty.

After just a couple of hours of listening, I still heard the same exact sonic improvements in my current system that I did with the Einstein/Brigadiers Audio/Arcam system back in Sydney. Using the wonderful, lovely-sounding Analogue Productions reissue of Dean Martin's Dream with Dean, I noticed a rather disjointed feeling between Dean and his backing band, which to me suggested that they were not recorded in the same space. There's a real center-fill problem with the band itself--guitar way over to the right, drums and bass way over to the left, with Dino smack dab in the middle.

Once the CLD footers were placed under the amp, turntable and phono stage, Dean and his band returned to the same studio space. The overall sound became more coherent, and more seamlessly blended from top to bottom. The footers also fleshed out the bass in the recording with more woodiness, more bloom. I removed the footers and listened once more (this is the best way to detect sonic improvements through changes in the system as well as minor tweaks) and I immediately felt like I was missing something. Dean's voice was a little drier, a little more distant.

I'm going to experiment with these footers a little more, testing their effects on system combinations that are both more resolving and less so. I'll come back with more findings in a few days.

The Chronicles of Sydnia, Finale: The Brigadiers Audio BA1 Loudspeaker

I'm currently fulfilling my own prediction that I'll be talking about my trip to Australia for the rest of my life. Here it is, nearly two months to the day after I returned to the US, and I'm still acting like one of those '50s dads who invites everyone over for twenty minutes of drinks and three hours of vacation slides. I'm ready to wrap it up now, although my trip will influence the direction of CCI over the next year.

For me, the single biggest reason to travel to Australia--outside of getting that first official passport stamp--was to hear Brad Serhan and David Allen's masterpiece, the Brigadiers Audio BA1 loudspeaker. I didn't even get a chance to hear it until about two weeks into my trip. I'd heard plenty about them beforehand, however. One of the many things I learned about Aussies was that they consider bragging to be poor form. (An American friend of mine has sarcastically noted, however, that Aussies like to brag about their modesty.) Brad wasn't telling me that he had made his masterpiece, a speaker so good that I should travel 8,167 miles just to hear it.

Instead, he said things like "we're anxious to have you over for a listen" and "we think it's really good but we want your feedback" and "we've had some reviewers and dealers here give it a listen and they really love it, but let's not get ahead of ourselves."

Here it is in all its glory. The Brigadiers Audio BA1 is much like its creators, understated and modest on the outside and utterly engaging while going about its daily business. Featuring two of those famous SEAS magnesium mid/bass drivers per side as well as a Raal ribbon tweeter, the BA1 seems very much like a traditional 2.5-way design--albeit one using the finest parts and materials. With this speaker, God is in the details with its birch-ply cabinet construction, constrained layer damping cabinet design using a new adhesive between the layers, and a remarkably refined crossover that is the culmination of Brad's thirty-plus years in speaker design.

In addition, Brigadiers can customize the BA1 and the BA2 in a number of different ways. An outboard crossover will be an option, for example, as well as driver gaskets made from additional constrained layer damping material from Les Davis. But one of the most unique aspects of these two speakers are their almost bespoke quality. When a customer decides to order a pair of BA1s or BA2s from a dealer, they will begin a relationship with that speaker. They can decide between exotic hand-oiled Australian veneers such as brushbox (seen in the completed BA1 we evaluated) and Australian rosewood and much more. Toby Hogpin, the master carpenter who is making the complex and beautifully-made cabinets for these speakers, can also encase them in dozens of different Corian finishes.

Then, once an order is placed, the entire team will send the customer video updates of the speaker being made. The customer will literally know his speaker inside and out before it even arrives. And while many manufacturers would use this custom approach to stretch out the delivery time of the finished product, Brad figures he can build a pair of these in just a few weeks.

Brad and David and I visited Toby at his shop in Sydney about a week into my visit, and to tell you the truth I had been looking forward to it for days. I have kind of a fetish about wooden loudspeaker veneers, and I'll be the first to admit that a gorgeous wooden finish is very, very important to me when I'm making a loudspeaker buying decision. I want something breathtakingly beautiful, something that no one else has. So I love the idea that you can discuss options with your dealer based on hi-rez photos supplied on the Brigadiers Audio website and choose a unique pair of speakers that no one else will have.

In other words, if your buddy buys a pair of custom BA1s or BA2s and you listen to them and decide you also want a pair, your speakers will not look exactly the same even if you choose the same veneer. Toby is always on the hunt for exciting and beautiful veneers, and he knows that the variations from tree to tree are profound enough to create a distinctive look for each pair of speakers. Then again, if you want a pair of speakers exactly like your buddy's, then it can probably be done. But what fun is that?

For instance, Toby showed me these blocks, which are all Australian rosewood. You can see the differences in color and grain patterns. That's why Toby will supply Brigadiers Audio with hi-rez photos so that the potential customers can see close-ups of the wood grain. The photos have to be hi-rez, of course; I don't know about you, but I've received speakers that looked completely different than they did on the website, thanks to these differences in veneers. Hi-rez photos are the best way to give the customer an almost exact idea of the final product.

Once a veneer is chosen, Toby gets started on the construction of the cabinets. With all of the layers of birch play, these speakers are very heavy for their size. I've had the 2-way BA2s since January and they're heavier, in my opinion, than any other wooden speaker of its size--more than 40 lbs. each. The BA1, despite having a relatively compact footprint and height, is a monster. It took two of us to carry each one of the empty cabinets back to Brad's house. They're not one of those behemoth loudspeakers that require you to place hydraulic jacks under your suspended floor, but they are surprisingly hefty.

As an additional choice, Toby can make the BA1 and BA2 with a Corian finish instead of the wood veneer for customers who want a more modern, streamlined look. Corian is a really interesting material for loudspeaker cabinets because, unlike wooden cabinets, Corian cabinets are repairable. If you scratch the cabinets of your BA1 or BA2, anyone who is a certified Corian installer can buff out the scratch and make your speakers look like new again. If you knock a chunk out of your loudspeaker cabinet, a Corian technician can merely shape a new chunk, fit it to size, and work it into the cabinet. You'll be able to see where these bigger repairs were made from up close, but not from your listening position. Minor scratches and dings, however, will not be detectable after repair.

Toby also has the ability to produce different combinations of veneers, so you can have brushbox on the outer sides and Corian on the front baffle, or anything else that might strike your fancy. Toby has more than 30 different colors available in Corian.

Once we carefully packed up the empty cabinets in the back of Brad's wagon, we returned to Brigadiers to assemble the speakers. For my initial listening impressions, we left the crossovers on the floor behind the speakers so that we could change resistor values if needed. (This is what we did with the BA2s, by the way.) Within a couple of hours, our BA1 was ready for my approval.

My input, as it turned out, wasn't really needed. Unlike the smaller BA2, which was still an unfinished prototype when I arrived in Sydney, the BA1 was a finished design and was already making the rounds. Indeed, this pair wasn't even serial number #001. With that Einstein integrated, the BA1 was an incredibly complete speaker, one that did everything I wanted it to do. After spending more than a week fine-tuning the BA2, I was beginning to think that my quest for the perfect two-way speaker was over. The BA2s were, in its final reiteration, so solid in the lower bass that I could not imagine needing more. When I heard the BA1, however, I heard that more and knew I had to have this speaker. Natural, detailed, extended and the frequency extremes--I knew that Brad had made his masterpiece. The perfect speaker for me, in other words, is a 2.5-way.

I'm going to stop right now with the hyperbole and the marketing talk because I don't want this to be about sales. It's just that this has been one of the highlights of my audiophile life, actually working with designers and consulting with them and getting results that are far better than I ever expected.

The challenge, of course, is bringing these two wonderful speakers to the US market and beyond. In just a short time, Brad and David have found a couple of dealers in Australia, and they're already talking about New Zealand distribution. But the US has become a very tricky market for high-end audio. It's not enough to say here, listen to this, you'll like it and want to buy it. As an importer and distributor, my main obstacle is usually bringing in brands to the US that represent good value, something that can be tough to do when you have to work in the cost of global shipping and still pay the bills. That has become one of the main requirements for CCI carrying a brand--when someone asks me how much a product is, I want them to say "Oh, is that all?" and not "Why is it so expensive?"

With this level of design, however, every little thing makes a difference in the final product, and everything costs money. These two speakers will not be cheap. That means Brad and Davis and Morris Swift (a third partner I haven't mentioned yet...sorry, Morris!) will have to ensure that they are running their operation as lean as possible without affecting the results. Plus, there are hundreds and hundreds of new speaker companies trying to get a foothold in the US market. They all want to be the next KEF or Harbeth or Quad or whatever.

All I can say is that this is the speaker I want when I retire, when I get off the audio merry-go-round. Is that enough to make people notice? Well, I aim to find out. Right now I'm trying to get all of these Down Under brands together at a US high-end audio show, possibly next year's show at Newport, so people can listen for themselves and decide whether or not I know what I'm talking about when it comes to good sound. I'm talking PureAudio, Axis, Redgum Audio, Brigadiers Audio--and let's not forget Les Davis' intriguing new CLD material--all in one room, or maybe two.

Australia and New Zealand are hot spots for high-end audio. They know good sound, and they are serious about achieving it. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. And I can't wait to go back.

The Chronicles of Sydnia, Part 7: Len Wallis Audio

As high-end audio importers and distributors, Colleen and I currently service 23 dealers in the US. As far as business models go, CCI has an even mix of brick-and-mortar stores and dealers working out of their homes. We even have one or two dealers who rely primarily on internet sales, even though we are an old-fashioned distributor and strenuously protect our dealers' territories. The latter group, of course, is reserved for customers who do not have a local dealer nearby. All of these dealer types have their pros and cons--home-based dealers, for instance, don't have to deal with the high overhead of a store and are able to offer demonstrations that closely approximate the customer's home environment, and more and more of these dealers are popping up all over the world.

This flexible model, which usually operates on an appointment-only basis, is certainly the way I shopped for years with Gene Rubin Audio--I really appreciated the one-on-one attention I received from Gene and I felt I made better buying decisions in such an environment. But I miss the old hi-fi stores, and the ability to stroll into a showroom and see all the equipment I've heard about in person. I still love to walk up to equipment and see it up close and perhaps even touch it--especially if no one is watching.

That's one of the reasons why Len Wallis Audio in Sydney was such a genuine treat, a well-needed respite toward the end of my Australian trip.

Walking in the front door, I felt chills as I saw the sales floor filled with tons of high-end audio equipment spread out everywhere, with listening rooms carefully positioned along the perimeter of the store for more careful auditioning. Suddenly I was transported back to the late '70s and early '80s, during my audiophile apprenticeship, where I could wandering among the set-ups and experience all these lovely machines in all their glory.

Brad Serhan wanted me to meet Len Wallis, who has been part of the Australian hi-fi scene for decades. In fact, I even knew who Len Wallis was before Brad even mentioned his name. So on the second-to-last day of my Sydney excursion, Brad and I headed out, unannounced, to Len Wallis Audio.

When was the last time you went to a hi-fi store in the US and saw dozens of beautiful turntables in a static display right when you walked in? And I'm not just talking about budget turntables. For instance, Len Wallis had the entire Rega turntable line sitting front and center, even the new RP10. Brad was amused as I darted all over the showroom saying, "Oh, they have this!" and "Wow, I've never seen one of these in person before!"

The first listening room I entered, just off to the right as we entered the store, featured a system that used the Axis VoiceBox S speaker. I mentioned that our trip was unannounced because Brad was so happy that one of his designs was featured so prominently in the store. "Len had no idea we were coming today," Brad explained. "So he didn't put these here just to make me happy!"

As it turns out, Len Wallis is the Australian distributor for Axis, and he told us that the speaker was really starting to take off in Sydney as THE 2-way monitor for his customers. We even spoke to one of Len's salesmen, who told us that he and the rest of the sales staff were discussing the most interesting new products in audio over the last few years and four out of the five salesmen said, "The Axis VoiceBox." That's comforting to Colleen and me since we've been working hard over the last year to spread the word.

Len, of course, was the exact opposite of the snobby high-end dealer so many audiophiles despise. Warm, friendly and full of enthusiasm, Len loved talking about audio as much as I do. He'd even been reading about my adventures in Oz and was hoping he'd get to meet me while I was there. We chatted for a while even though Brad and I had arrived unannounced and he was in the middle of a very busy day.

This, of course, underlined something I already knew: Australians as a group are friendly and outgoing and so nice to deal with. I'm certainly not saying you don't get that level of attention from US dealers, or that you won't have as much fun with a dealer who works from home. But between Len Wallis and Jeff Knox, I knew that if I ever moved to Australia my high-end audio needs would be met. (And trust me, that subject came up several times!)

If anything, visiting Len Wallis and Jeff Knox was the realization of a subject I've been writing about all year in my articles for Perfect Sound Forever and Part-Time Audiophile--that a good hi-fi dealer is an audiophile's best friend, even 8000 miles away in a foreign country. Not equipment reviewers. Not other audiophiles on internet discussion forums. A high-end audio dealer, the type that isn't just making a sale but is trying to get you as a customer for life by steering you right.

In Len Wallis Audio, I was able to see some of my favorite gear just sitting around. I even saw a Continuum turntable just sitting on a table near the back of the store! I made Brad snap this photo of me with a Linn Sondek LP12 for a couple of nebulous reasons. First of all, I've always wanted to own a Linn ever since I first heard one back when I was in college and they still retailed for $795. These days Linns just aren't as prevalent in the US as they are in the rest of the world. That's too bad because I still find them to be exceptional turntables that offer a unique sound that may not be the last word in accuracy, but it's compelling and musical nonetheless. It reminded me of one of my favorite dealers in the US, Dan Muzquiz of Blackbird Audio, who is one of the last few of the US dealers who can still set-up and extract optimum performance from one of these classics.

While there, Brad had another treat--Len Wallis still sells loudspeakers from Orpheus Audio, one of Brad's earlier designs. As I glanced around the store and talked to some of the staff, I wondered how often hi-fi stores are visited by the actual manufacturers and designers who make the gear being sold. I'm not talking about planned dealer events, just an impromptu visit to hang out and perhaps talk a little about audio.

Again, I'm not trying to make a general point about the paucity of brick-and-mortar high-end audio stores in the US because I do visit plenty of them. Many of them are just as impressive as Len Wallis Audio. I'm just saying that I long for a return for this type of store in the US. Maybe that's not realistic in 2015, but I still get goosebumps when I see an old-fashioned hi-fi store still thriving in the Age of the Internet.

The Chronicles of Sydnia, Part 6: Redgum Audio, the Axis VoiceBox and Carlton Ale

This is a current photo of my main listening room, where I have substituted a rather basic black box of an integrated amplifier for my usual glowing tube amplifiers. To tell you the truth, I've needed an amplifier like this for a while--something with high current, something that can drive just about anything, especially when I'm entrusted with a loudspeaker with fairly low efficiency--such as the 83 dB, 5-ohm Axis VoiceBox S that we distribute here at CCI.

I'm reminded of my old Naim NAIT 2 amplifier, that diminutive and legendary little black box from the UK that offered about 18wpc. Back in the early '90s, my little NAIT did a pretty decent job of driving my 84 dB Spendor S20s--as long as I didn't crank up the volume too much. (I lived in a small one-bedroom apartment in Encino at the time, so I wanted great sound at low SPLs.) How did this combo work? The NAIT was a high-current design, and the Spendors had a fairly benign 8-ohm impedance. It was my first taste of true high-end sound. It was the perfect apartment system for me.

This particular integrated amplifier is the Redgum Audio RG1 35 ENR. Since my return from Australia, I've spoken with several of my dealers here in the States and many of them remember this venerable brand from a few years ago. What they remember most is the lovely wood--or as they say Down Under, "timber"--faceplates, as well as the novel key that's inserted on the front panel and turned to turn the amplifier on. The RGi 35 ENR doesn't have that same gorgeous front, decked out in the trademark redgum front--it's part of the new Black Series that represents the entry-level line for Redgum. It doesn't have the key, either. But this little 65wpc integrated amplifier has something I need--the ability to drive whatever speakers I have on hand for evaluation. In fact, this amplifier is well-known in Australia for being able to drive the smaller Magnepan speakers to fairly loud listening levels.

So how did I wind up taking this amplifier home with me? John Reilly, who designed the Axis VoiceBox S loudspeaker with Brad Serhan and manufactures it, shares factory space with Ian Robinson of Redgum. While I was meeting with John in Sydney, he suggested that I meet Ian and listen to his products. I remembered Redgum Audio as well, and I once heard a system driven by Redgum amplification and I really liked it. So John called Ian in Melbourne and he headed out to Sydney with the RGi 35 tucked underneath his arm. (Okay, the Redgum isn't small like the NAIT, so a little more effort was required.)

The first question I have to ask an overseas manufacturer when they want me to hear their product is, "What makes your product special, and how can I sell it in the US?" That, of course, mirrors the questions my dealers will ask me about the product, questions such as "How is this different from other similar products in the market?" and "How do I sell this to my customers?" Most of all, dealers want a story to tell, and the answer has to be better than "It sounds really good for the money." At first glance, the Redgum amps are the proverbial black-box amp, simple and a bit of an anachronism--if simple two-channel audio, within the context of its current resurrection, can be called that. As an audiophile, I've always leaned toward simple integrated amplifiers since my system usually just includes speakers, an analog source and a digital source. I don't need a fancy amp, in other words.

This simple black box had some unusual features, however. First of all, when I asked Ian if he had a 110V version for US, he informed me that his amplifiers could do both 110V and 220V--a sensor within the amp uses relays to choose the right power setting. I'm not sure if that's a big selling point for US audiophiles, although I do occasionally have customers who live in more than one country and would love an amp with this feature. As an importer I dig this feature because it means I won't have to wait longer for special "US" versions to be shipped, which can often lead to delays.

The second unusual feature is the way the inputs are marked. Instead of such dated input labels as "tuner" or even "CD," the five inputs are color-coded. Each color is represented on the front panel with a corresponding colored LED on the front panel. Input selection is accessed through the remote control, which leads to a cleaner, more streamlined front panel. You can even ensure that the batteries on the remote are fresh by pushing a button labelled "MAGIC" which makes the relays in the amp click a few times. Other interesting features include passive preamplification with dual volume controls, a massive power transformer with power output MOSFETs and a huge "sine-wave" heatsink on the bottom of the amp that elevates the chassis for better ventilation, and adds a distinctive look that does manage to make this simple black box look like no other. There's even a smart phone app that can replace the remote control's basic operations.

Hanging out with Ian and John was a real pleasure--they're both "blokes" in the true Australian sense of the word. We spent a few hours talking about the Redgum products, and then we set out to put the smallest Redgum through its paces. As I said, the RGi 35, at 65wpc, is the smallest amp in the line. The Black Series also includes the 125wpc RGi 60 ENR and the 175wpc RGi 120 ENR. All three amplifiers are identical on the outside--it's the power inside that's different. Due to my best calculations, performed while the Australian dollar experienced some instability over a period of a couple of weeks, these amps should retail in the US for about $2500, $3500 and $4500.

Paired with their soulmates, John Reilly's Axis VoiceBox S, the RGi 35 ENR was able to extract more bass control from those very revealing studio monitors than the lower-powered tube amplifiers I've used up to this point. Ian has designed his amplifiers specifically for speaker loads that dip below 4 ohms. The Axis sits at 5 ohms, and while I've been able to drive them with as few as 22 watts per channel, I've always felt that the Axis VoiceBox needed a little more juice to realize their true potential. I was right. I've never heard the VoiceBox sound so effortless and dynamic as they did with the Redgum.

During our voicing of the Brigadiers Audio speakers, we had plenty of expensive amplification sitting around. While we kept gravitating toward the AU$16,000 Einstein integrated for its ability to stay out of the way of the music, we kept going back to the modest Redgum for its ability to project a powerful, dynamic and clean sound. Not bad for a $2500 integrated!

So I've brought the Redgum back to the States for further evaluation, which is code for "deep down I'm still an audiophile and nothing thrills me more than to have seat time with a new product." After a few weeks I'm obviously considering bringing Redgum back to the US. The utilitarian looks might not be for audiophiles who are looking for audio jewelry adorned with precious metals, glowing meters and rare wood accents, but Ian still manufacturers his classic Signature Series with the timber (or is it "timbre"?) faceplates for a little more money. But I'll tell you what the Black Series is--it's the Workhorse Series. It's the amplifier for the audiophile who needs to power something like a Magnepan but doesn't want to spend a fortune on the watts needed to make those huge panels sing. And while many in the audio industry say "watts are cheap," implying that you can find a powerful amp for not a lot of money, those amps often lack subtlety and musicality--unlike the Redgum.

After our listening sessions, John asked me if I'd been to an Australian pub yet. When I replied that I hadn't, both Ian and John took me to a local pub where we enjoyed a Carlton ale on draft (or is it "draught"?). I didn't know of Carlton ale--my experience with Australian beer has been confined to those really big cans of Fosters. After a long day of listening, that smooth, creamy Carlton really hit the spot. That's a feeling I could grow to love--a hard day of work, and then a pint or two of Carlton's with a couple of my mates before going home for the evening.

And, as usual, if CCI starts importing Redgum to the States I will stop telling you how great these amps are. But until then, yeah, I really enjoy the power, control and simplicity of the RGi 35 ENR.

The Chronicles of Sydnia, Part 5: Les Davis and Constrained Layer Damping

About a year ago I was hosting an exhibit room at one of the hi-fi trade shows--I'm about 99% sure it was RMAF 2014--and a salesperson from one of my dealers came and sat in my room and evaluated our system. He came away quite impressed with the sound, which is a good thing since he sells our products to his clientele. Before he left, he recommended one thing--I should use footers and vibration control from a particular company in order to "sharpen" the sound of each component.

When I priced these products I was a little dismayed at the high cost of just a single set of footers. And I was supposed to stick these under every single component I demonstrated? Whew. I was going to have to cut down on cigars in order to find the budget to include these products so CCI could have that advantage over the other exhibitors--who were also using these products as well.

Flash forward to this year's RMAF, from which we've just returned. While there, I noticed the aforementioned footers in what seemed like every other room. The word was out--if you're serious about audio, you need these expensive thingies. I found myself in one of the better-sounding rooms at the show, where the actual designer of the footers demonstrated the sonic differences with and without his product. There was no doubt about it...with the footers in place, the noise floor lowered and the overall sound was fuller and more detailed. I was sold, except for one thing; I'd heard a similar demo in Australia the month before with another product that was more modest in looks, and therefore potentially more affordable.

The man in the photo above is Les Davis. Les has been in and out of the audio game for many years. He's a gifted musician as well as an audiophile with excellent hearing. A mate of Brad Serhan and David Allen, Les wanted a few minutes of my time so that I could hear the effects of a new damping material he had developed using constrained layer damping techniques. While in Australia, I heard about constrained layer damping many times--Brad uses this design concept to seal the cabinets of the Brigadiers Audio BA1 and BA2 loudspeakers.

Les, however, has taken the concept one step further. He showed us a simple sheet of his material, which we then cut up into squares to slide under the components of the system we used to evaluate the voicing of our two speakers. The sheets looked like aluminum foil that had a distinct grid-like pattern stamped into them. First we placed a sheet under the Arcam CD player we were using. We heard those same gains in clarity, frequency extension and detail. We then placed a sheet under the Einstein integrated amp that we had all grown to love during the development of the BA1 and BA2. We heard even more gains. Finally, we placed sheets under the Brigadiers Audio BA1, which you can see below. What I thought was one of the greatest speaker designs I've heard in quite some time became even better--deeper, clearer, more coherent.

I told Les that he was definitely on to something. After the demo, Les and I talked about everything under the sun, including our favorite music. Les, who is British and grew up during that stellar era of UK music in the '70s and '80s, had quite a bit in common with me, the kid who was totally into the LA punk scene back in the early '80s. You know, SST bands like The Minutemen, Husker Du, Meat Puppets and Black Flag.

So what is constrained layer damping? I'm not an expert at this point, but I'm learning so I'll proceed with caution. (Both Les and Brad can offer a more eloquent explanation, I'm sure.) CLD is used for damping and vibration control in a number of technical applications. CLD usually consists of a three-layer sandwich of damping materials--a base layer, a damping layer and a constraining layer. The alternating layers then dissipate all vibrations as "low-grade frictional heat."

Brad's use of constrained layer damping is applied through the use of birch-ply construction in his cabinets, with a specialized adhesive between the layers. Les' approach adds even more damping--as we saw with the initial demonstration, each layer of CLD improved the sound in an almost linear manner without diminishing returns.

The differences, as I said, are not subtle. We did extensive A/B comparisons and everyone in the room heard a difference. Those differences, as I said, were almost identical to the improvements I heard in Denver a few days ago. CLD is not a gimmick--it's effective engineering applied to our hobby. So I told Les, "this is something people should know about." So I told Les that I thought he should start applying his sheets into a finished product, one that could implement the sheets into an attractive footer between attractive pieces of wood, or metal, or anything that would not dilute the impact of CLD.

After a few weeks, I started thinking about Les' sheets and how I want others to hear what this material can do for their systems. So I'm hoping to sneak a few little squares under our Opera and Unison Research system at CES in January. I'm also eager to try the CLD sheets in my own system at home.

So this is one of those unexpected developments--an Australian encounter with something that I think could be great. Les is going to manufacture some CLD gaskets to fit around the drivers inside the cabinets of the BA1 and BA2 and we'll see how that affects the sound of a speaker I already feel is outstanding in every conceivable parameter. So if you come visit us at CES (room 29-110 at the Venetian), hopefully I'll have some of Les' fantastic CLD sheets on hand so you can listen for yourself.

Random Pics from Knox Audio

Just a couple of days after I blogged about Jeff Knox Audio just outside of Sydney, Australia, Brad Serhan sent me a truckload of new photos from my visit. So here are some better photographs of Jeff's Million Dollar System, his snakes and more!

The Chronicles of Sydnia, Part 3: Jeff Knox and the Million Dollar System

An old audio acquaintance of mine, these days an avowed audio enemy (ah, the Internets!), used to accuse me of being in love with the price tags of high-end audio equipment. That opinion was drawn after he once visited my house in Los Angeles and listened to my audio system. As I showed him each piece of gear, I gave him a quick run down of the specs, features and ultimately the price. By the end of the visit, he pointed out to me that I couldn't stop mentioning how much everything cost--he seemed to be insinuating that I was boasting about the high price of my spread.

There was only one problem with this observation. The system I demonstrated to him wasn't my system, but a system comprised mostly of gear I was reviewing at the time. (This was back in my TONEAudio days.) The only reason I kept mentioning the price of everything was because I wanted him to have a reference of how much each component cost so he would have a better idea of the performance-price ratio--something I had to consider as a reviewer. In addition, my experience in the audio industry and running countless trade shows has taught me that the first question in everyone's minds is "How much?" Besides, how could I boast about the cost of a system I didn't own? He and his bad manners weren't invited back.

This all illustrates how some audiophiles lose their minds when it comes to ultra high-end audio. Browse through some of the audio discussion forums online and you'll find a lot of hate and indignation toward $500,000 speakers, $200,000 turntables, $100,000 amplifiers, $35,000 DACs and $15,000 cartridges. Some people seem to take these prices personally--how dare we market such outlandish gear! A lot of this vitriol is based on envy--some of us in the industry have to tell these exasperated souls that this kind of gear is simply not for them, and no one is twisting their arm to buy it.

That brings me to Knox Audio, just outside of Sydney. Jeff Knox, the proprietor, has assembled a million dollar system in his main demo room. (Okay, it's a million Australian dollars, but still.) When he started Knox Audio just a few years ago, he decided that he was going to invest heavily in the best system money could buy. He didn't do it to show off, or to target the super-rich. He did it to merely show his clients the possibilities. (He does feature a more modest yet still relatively expensive system in a second demo room.)

The main system at Knox Audio is comprised of an AMG Viella 12 turntable with arm, MySonic Lab Signature Gold MC cartridge, Ypsilon MC-L step-up transformer, Ypsilon VPS-100 phono preamplifier, Ypsilon CDT-100 CD transport, Ypsilon DAC-100 (Special Silver Transformer Edition), Ypsilon PST-100 mk. II preamplifier (Special Silver Transformer Edition), Soulution 701 monoblock power amplifiers and Evolution Acoustics MM3 loudspeakers, all wired with EnKlein "David" and danA 4G cabling and supported with Stillpoints and Finite Elemente Pogode equipment racks. Whew!

Before I mention the sound, I want to say that Jeff was a extraordinarily gracious host to Brad Serhan, David Allen and me. He spent the better part of the day playing the rarest LPs, great-sounding hi-rez digital--the normal selection of reference recordings designed to make a profound impression. It did. Jeff was so happy to take time out of his busy day just to listen to music with the three of us, which counters the impression many US audiophiles have about dealers who specialize in equipment that pushes the envelope. They expect a snobby salesman who might need to perform a credit check before an appointment is made, someone who is in love with price tags. That's not Jeff.

Jeff even told us that he regularly invites members of the local Sydney audiophile society to Knox Audio for a demonstration, and he's surprised when he gets turned down. Perhaps it's because these audiophiles think Jeff will hard sell them after the audition. What's more likely is that they're afraid to hear his system and then have to go home to their system, which will never satisfy them again. That, of course, is one of the main symptoms of audiophilia nervosa.

That's nuts, of course. Jeff seems like the kind of person who has a genuine love for high-end audio, and he wants to share those aforementioned possibilities with as many people as he can. It's a hobby, a wonderful one that involves enjoying music, something to get enthusiastic about. When I walked out of Knox Audio that day, I didn't think it was a bummer that I had to go back to more ordinary playback systems. I was energized about high-end audio. I felt honored that I was able to spend so much time listening to that system. I wanted to dedicate myself anew to the industry.

You might ask yourself, "What does a system like this do that others don't?" Well, first of all I'd have to say that it projected all performers and musical instruments as "actual size." There are times when I hear mega-buck systems with huge coffin-size loudspeakers and everything sounds bigger than life. Singers are eight feet tall. Pianos are fifteen feet wide. Drum kits expand infinitely toward the horizon. It's pseudo-impressive, but not realistic. Jeff's system accurately rendered the performances in the proper scale--just as if you were in the audience and the performers were on a stage. There was a stunning lack of artifice in the sound--on many recordings the sound was as lifelike as I've heard from a hi-fi.

Second, the ability of this system to resolve inner detail and capture all of the music from the original performance was without equal. We listened to an LP of a choir backed by an orchestra, and I was able to focus on one particular singer and follow her voice through the entire track. I could then choose another singer and do it again. Take any aspect of a performance, the brush of a cymbal, the tapping of a foot, the movement of an invisible performer across the stage--it was all stunningly whole and tangible. The whole was equal to the sum of the parts.

I've been auditioning hi-fi equipment for what, 35 years now, and I've experienced many amazing dealer demonstrations. None approached this one for sheer thrills.

This incredible hi-fi system isn't the only thing that makes Knox Audio stand out from the crowd. Here you see a member of the elite Knox Audio Security Force. As Jeff explained, "The python species Marc is holding is a Woma python ‘Aspidites ramsayi‘ and is found in the Tanami desert in the Northern Territory of Australia. This one was bred in captivity, however they are considered endangered in the wild. This one is an adult male and is about 1.6m long." Jeff is a true reptile lover, and he has a few other snakes kept in terrariums around his house. One, a red-bellied black snake, was venomous, and yeah, I petted it. Jeff just reached in and grabbed it and held it out for me to pet while warning the other two that it was indeed a wild animal and would attack if provoked.

(Due to my extreme arachnophobia, a few of my friends were teasing me about going to Australia--home of the deadly Sydney funnel-web spider. For some reason, everyone thought I was scared of snaked as well. But I like snakes, and here's proof.)

This is the first time I've heard the AMG Viella 12 turntable at length. It's been receiving a lot of positive press over the last couple of years. I've heard it briefly at a couple of trade shows, but not at a prolonged audition such as this. In the context of Jeff's main system, the AMG might seem a little modest--I was expecting a $100,000 super 'table and the AMG sells in the US with arm for around $18,000. That's not chicken feed, of course, but I reminded myself that this was Australia, the land of Continuum. Jeff's reason for including the AMG was simple--he could have used just about any turntable but chose this one because he felt that among his options, it just sounded more musical. (And perhaps Jeff's not in love with price tags either, despite the gravitas of this system--he just wants the best, whatever it is.)

I can concur--while the digital playback source from Ypsilon was nothing short of sensational, I felt the whole system went up yet another notch once we switched to vinyl. The combination of the Viella table and arm with the MySonic cartridge was solidly focused and full of life.

This final pic is a bit of a teaser--Jeff has listened to Brad and David's larger speaker for Brigadiers Audio in the context of this system. I won't tell you what he thinks...yet.

Again, congratulations to Jeff on the finest dealer demo I have experienced. I wish I could just head over there with a few of my favorite LPs and spend another afternoon there, but it's 8,167 miles from where I'm sitting right now. Suffice it to say that high-end audio is very alive and well in Australia, and Knox Audio is definitive proof of that.

If you'd like to know more about Knox Audio, you can check out Jeff's website, call him at 02 9542 2998 or email him at jrknox357357@optusnet.com.au. Don't be afraid of the snakes, or this completely gob-smacking hi-fi system. Just kick back and enjoy the ride.

The Chronicles of Sydnia, Part 2: Getting to Work

In the interest of disclosure, I must state my biases about Brigadier Audio up front, especially in the context of my recent visit to Australia. I've been consulting with Brad Serhan and David Allen on these two speaker models all year long. I'm not even going to try to say that I had something to do with the final design--Brad and Dave have been completely obsessed with these two speakers for more than a year and a half. My role is little more than an audiophile who came in, listened and offered feedback. Despite all that, the Brigadiers Audio BA1 and BA2 are sort of my babies, in a godchild sort of way, and my main objective in going to Australia was to sit down with Dave and Brad and listen and tweak until we were absolutely sure they were great enough to bring to the US market. So of course I'm going to tell you that I love these two speakers--but just not because I want to sell them to you.

Let me illustrate. I love pizza, and the best pizza I've ever eaten was mine. Ask most of my family and close friends about their favorite pizza, and they'll probably tell you it was mine as well. While I was in college I worked at a local pizza parlor, then I managed it, then I started my own pizza parlor based on my own recipe, and then I sold it and partnered up on a second one. When I developed my own recipe, I basically started with solid recipes that I truly enjoyed, and then I tweaked it until it had evolved into the best tasting pizza I had tried up to that point. It wasn't culinary skill, and it wasn't luck. It was just about indulging my own preferences, and hoping that my tastes in pizza had a somewhat universal appeal.

It was the same with these two speakers, especially the BA2 2-way monitor that I've been evaluating since last CES. I was going to listen, offer my opinions, and then step back and let Brad and David decide whether or not my recommendations were valid. When I told Brad that after listening to the BA2s my only reservations were the extreme bottom end and a reticent midrange, he nodded and agreed as if to say, "I thought so." It turns out that Brad was able to voice the speaker in one of two ways, and he basically flipped a coin to decide which setting he was going to use on my sample pair. After hearing my comments on the BA2's performance, he basically told himself, "Ah, the other setting."

Once I arrived in Australia and my body clock adjusted somewhat, we dove into work. Brad's first recommendation was to experiment with a variety of resistor swaps that would set the impedance at different values between 4.5 and 5 Ohms. David, shown in the photo at left, suggested that we swap out the rear ports as well. In the workshop they had a variety of wooden O-rings of different shapes, as well as matching tubes of differing lengths. When I told Brad that I wanted deeper bass, he and David decided to try a longer port with a smaller diameter hole. Dave got to work on machining the O-ring so that I would fit perfectly into the rear of the BA2 cabinets.

Sure enough, the change in the port dimensions produced a much deeper and much more satisfying bottom octave. I told Brad and David from the beginning that every smallish two-way monitor sold in the US had to have one salient feature in order to be successful--it had to sound "much bigger than it looked." After the port tweak, I no longer had reservations about the bottom end of this speaker. The deep bass was huge, deep, full, round and musically persuasive. The port fix also seemed to cure the laid-back midrange, the proverbial two birds with one stone. If these different ports had been available to me while I had the BA2s in the US, I wouldn't have needed to go to Australia at all. They would have been perfect, in my honest opinion.

But I'm so glad I did get to go, so that point is sort of moot.

By the way, we did all of our final testing of the two Brigadiers Audio speakers with this Einstein integrated amplifier with internal phono stage. We had quite a few amps on hand to test out the speakers, but we decided unanimously that this German-made Einstein did the best job of stepping aside and letting us hear what the speakers were really doing. We compared the Einstein to another very highly-regarded amplifier from a very highly-regarded European manufacturer--and we were all surprised when the Einstein came out head-and-shoulders above in terms of detail and focus and imaging.

I know very little about the brand--I did have a chance to audition one of their phono stages years ago when I was reviewing equipment, and I remember liking it. But this amp right here, well, wow. What a nice, beautiful, state of the art amplifier that is, incidentally, light enough for one person to carry around comfortably. Someone told me they thought it retailed for around AU$16,000, but that's actually a bargain for this level of performance.

I found the sound room in the workshop to be a little on the live side. I could hear around the room acoustics to a certain extent, but I was concerned that some of the room reflections could mask minor problems with the sound. So we moved the BA2s and the Einstein to Dave's gorgeous condo right on Sydney Harbor. If you've seen the photographs of the Axis VoiceBox S on the Axis website, the ones with the Sydney Harbor Bridge in the background, well, then you've seen Dave's place. Despite lots of glass sliding doors and sleek, modern surfaces, Dave's living room actually turned out to be a great place to listen. Solid floors and soundproof rooms combined to make the BA2s sound focused, warm and full of inner detail.

We did proceed with a few transistor swaps and finally came up with an impedance value that balanced the midrange perfectly against the frequency extremes for a totally coherent and balanced sound. We listened for hours, and at the end of a long night we all decided that the BA2 design was finished.

So I've been talking about the search for a perfect two-way speaker in this blog, to which SpJ's Judy Spotheim-Koreneeff told me "No such thing, and no such creation." I know that in high-end audio, there is no perfect and there is no best. But I can say that the Brigadiers Audio BA2 is a lot like a slice of my pizza circa 1982--it's what I want in a two-way if given the choice. Because it's a two-way, it's small and easily managed when it comes to speaker placement. (Someone, I think it was Brad, mentioned that the strength of the two-way is that it's much easier to set up in a small room, and I believe we all agreed.) It images like crazy, with musicians and voices inhabiting very specific spaces between the speakers, their actual sizes perfectly reproduced in Dave's living room.

But because of the complex, solid birch-ply construction, constrained layer damping and high quality drivers, I just got the impression that this was a basic two-way design taken to the nth degree. Now I know there are some pretty ambitious and expensive two way speakers out there from the likes of Magico and Raidho and others, tiny speakers that sound magnificent--and cost about the same as a new Honda Accord. The BA2s will cost a fraction of that, but they will still seem fairly pricey to the uninitiated. But this is simply a matter of looking a little deeper--seeing the love that Brad and David put into every pair, and then hearing the results. I'm very proud of how this speaker turned out, and I can't wait to share it here in the US.

I'm jumping the gun a little--I'm saving the coverage of the cabinet-making aspect of Brigadiers Audio for later--but I did want to show you an unexpected development in the cabinet choices of these two speakers. Brad and Dave and I went to visit Toby Hogpin, the master carpenter who will be building the exquisite cabinets for the BA1 and BA2. In addition to plenty of exotic Australian hardwood veneers, the cabinets of the Brigadiers Audio loudspeakers can also be made from Corian. You probably know Corian from its applications in kitchen counter tops. My personal pair of Trenner & Friedl ART loudspeakers have Corian on the front baffles, which is very polished and shiny and attractive.

Well, Toby made a couple of BA2 enclosures using black and white Corian and they are simply beautiful. What's unusual about Corian is that it can be repaired and re-polished if there's an incident. So if you scratch the outside of these speakers, you can take them to anyone who is a certified Corian installer and have them re-polished and restored to their original pristine state. If a chunk gets knocked out of them--and I've seen this on many traditional wood veneer enclosures--you can get add a piece and re-contour the surface and get them almost back to perfect--supposedly you can see where the piece has been added if you look up close, but not from your listening position, where it counts.

These speakers can be finished in 35 or 40 different Corian finishes. Many of these finishes will remind you granite counter tops, however, so sticking to the solid colors is probably wise.

So for now the Brigadiers Audio BA2 2-way bookshelf monitor is finished. Brad and David are going to perform some measurements so we can get some specs on the Brigadiers Audio website. Then I'm getting another pair sent to me so I can show them to dealers, at trade shows, all the usual venues. I'm nervous and excited, as are Brad and David. But we're eager to see how audiophiles and music lovers respond to the BA2.