Carol Taylor from Stereodesk was showing of the Albedo HL 2.2 ($6,600/pair) ceramic-driver loudspeakers, paired with electronics from Crayon and Musica Pristina. Kaplan Cables used throughout.
The Crayon gear sat on a magnificent reclaimed-wood table. A fantastic old-new combo, there, that Carol tells me is a hallmark for Sterodesk — great sounds with great looks. Works for me. Music was rich, detailed and groovy. Nice match to the room.
Stereodesk also had a trio of setups down in the open-space “atrium” area, including some nice headphone rigs, and some more really choice furniture setups. Love those Singer frames with the big marble slab top. Nice work.
I also saw a pair of Ardan speaker stands — bloody hard to get here in the States, I tried. These stands can articulate this way and that — and let you actually match the pair, and with the precision settings, no need to guess what it was you had in the first place.
Also in on one of those tables, a set of Astell&Kern players — including the brand-new, dual mono, A&K120.
The Burson Audio Conductor, with the “running board” lights, was pretty awesome. Mine doesn’t have those [insert unhappy face, here].
Nice outing by a CAF newcomer. Great to see the variety here!
THANKS JON
FRED
Thanks for all the kind words. I’m a huge fan of W4S, (that’s why we carry them) but the best laid plans and so forth. So all we could do was have the Dac 2 DSDse pumping into our Mal Valve Headphone Amp downstairs. (pretty awesome actually)
The Albedo Sound HL2.2s were just new, so the ceramic drivers took a while to settle. New, they’re pretty unforgiving of source material-if it’s thin, or lacking bass, you’ll hear that. Once they’re up for a while, man do they fill out. They also make two larger models that add to the thickness and texture, while keeping the speed.
Sorry we let you down with the W4S, but we’ll certainly be showing them in the future.
Fred@StereoDesk
Stereodesk.com
…oft go astray, indeed.
I will just have to come over in person and have a listen next time up there (ex-Bostonian)! Please let me know when you guys are up and running and giving those “other” shops in Cambridge hell!
Agreed on all previously said. Nice to see someone do something different on speaker design. First I’ve ever heard Crayon. Good gear. Unfortunate name. Disappointing there was no wyred4sound gear, one of the reasons I came to the show. Dealers seem to think you should just home demo direct I guess.
Once again, 2nd listen, the speakers sounded great on Sunday. Detail, transparency, musical and a bunch more bass present. They were pretty cool!
This room definitely needed some bottom end help. But I can imagine that with a sub or two properly integrated, you’d end up with killer sound. The low mids on up were excellent here.
Loved the look of those speakers, like something out of a David Stone Martin illustration. Very precise an detail, maybe a bit bright, but a fun room. Yeah, that table was awesome.