Musical Artisans 2nd show of 2009 featuring the legendary Luxman electronics, and the stunning Vivid Audio loudspeakers was a remarkable success. Philip O’Hanlon, the North American importer for these products flew in to co-host the show, and helped put together an ensemble of super-fidelity audio components as well as two track analogue master tape to showcase the edge of the art sound. The Luxman and Vivid loudspeakers featured in the main system have been awarded the prestigious Grand Prix Awards from Stereo Sound of Japan.
Here is a brief summary of how the first weekend fared:
The Luxman MQ-88 / CL-88 with a DU-80 driving the Vivid B-1 sounded absolutely spectacular. It didn't hurt that we had the SonoruS modified Revox PR99 playing master tapes which left people in awe. Music lovers shook their heads in disbelief at Hugh Masakela's Stimela - The Coal Train To Namibia with its whooping & wailing; even the little Vivids handled the 20dB dynamics with aplomb ! The funniest reaction to this system was the number of people who went looking in the kitchen for a hidden pair of large subwoofers - all they managed to find was the trash can !
There was a small system with the L-550A & DU-50 driving Focal Be Monitors.
The large system with Luxman C800f / D-08 / B1000f monos and a Transrotor Turbillon turntable driving Vivid K-1. $100k worth of Siltech cabling for this system - delivered remarkable performance. The speakers disappeared and threw a wide, deep soundstage, notable for its rich timbre, with lots of layering. Ricardo drove the big system while I drove the B-1 system, Bill Blaylock from Austin Audio Tech (Austin, TX) very kindly flew in for the weekend to help Ricardo.
The Luxman D-08 SACD playback is possibly the finest SACD player on the planet; the Stockfish SACDs sounded absolutely staggering and gave little away to the big Transrotor turntable. Hilary Hahn playing one of the Bach Violin Concertos; the color of the strings, the vibrancy of her performance, the harmonics soared hundreds of feet above the ceiling . Bear in mind there was no acoustical treatment in that room. On regular CD the Keith Jarret "Live at the Blue Note" - jazz trio, played "When I Fall in Love" the piano & cymbals harmonics & decay were spooky. Gary Karr on his Aranjuez LP was truly able to reproduce the color & textures of the Amati contra bass. The low level dynamics & resolution was something I have not heard captured before. One of the clients mentioned that this system had bloom & overtones that he had never heard in his life. Al Di Meola's CD "Kiss My Axe" (the cannon track) was a true display of how this system handled power (without hardening the sound) & yet still maintained its composure, image specificity even though the system was playing at 110dB ! Ricardo was generous in doling out fine wine, Irish whiskey, not to mention that Ricardo personally prepared exquisite home-made, smoked trout pate, seared ahi tuna, ceviche... You missed out on a fun weekend..
SECOND SHOW - Saturday,May 16th – 1 to 6 P.M.
Ricardo Reyes
Musical Artisans phone 847-877-2791
As always, you’re welcome to bring your own music and friends.
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