Sam Laufer was still trying to get everything working together when I entered his room. The gentleman on the left in the photo was Edgar Choueiri, professor of Physics at Princeton University.
On short notice, he brought his DSP crosstalk cancellation device. It’s called a BACCH™ 3D Sound. Contacting Sam after the show (he lives in Connecticut and I know him), he said that he put in the BACCH™ 3D Sound device two hours or so on Friday, but I missed that.
Both the speakers and the amps were brand new and needed considerable run-in to settle. The little bit that I heard, immediately after they got the system playing, was far from dialed in yet, so it is unfair to comment on the sound. Sam tells me that by Sunday, it was sounding very musical and sweet. I often wonder if it would not be better for me to go on Sunday, but press day is Friday and the rooms are not as crowded then.
Components in the room included:
Laufer-Teknik The Note Loudspeaker ($29,950 including subwoofer), Absolare Hybrid Altius Monoblock Amplifiers ($80,000/pair), The Memory Player 64-16 with Tube DAC ($25,000),
SVS-SP-4000 Subwoofer ($1,600), Echole Power Center and cables (please inquire for pricing),
Telos Grounding System (price?), Mutec Ref 10 and MC-3+ USB $4,999 and $1,199 respectively.
—Steve Marsh
