High-End Hi-Fi

It looks like an architect's model for a cluster of ultramodern buildings with ramps, terraces and towers thrusting skyward. Then someone presses a button and the whole thing comes alive with incredible sound. you are in the presence of a new kind of sonic greatness, and size, complexity and cost just don't mean a thing. What counts is performance--with the fringe ends of the audible spectrum given as much meticulous attention as the main sonic body. Obviously, this system is not for everyone. Aside from its size, the setup costs a cool $45,000--and that's only for the speakers and an equalizer. Rounding out the full stereo stable with suitably matched turntable, arm, cartridge, tape deck, tuner and amplifiers ups the ante to about $90,000. This particular speaker setup is the custom-built contribution to high-end audio by David A. Wilson, the owner of Wilson Audio Specialties of Novato, California, a designer who makes his 1650-pound speakers available in more than 100 fine wood finishes. Give him about 14 weeks to deliver the system once you order it. The full name is the Wilson Audio Modular Monitor, but you can call it WAMM. If you can't wait for a WAMM to be built and $32,000 is burning a hole in your pocket, there's the Infinity Systems Reference Standard Series III speakers, which, at 7'6", suggest a scale model of a high-rise. They weigh in at a mere 1200 pounds and house a dozen 12" woofers and 72 tweeters in the four modules. As of right now, the WAMM and the Infinity III are probably the world's most expensive and elaborate sound boxes. Just looking at them can inspire awe. Who'd have (concluded on page 190) High-end Hi-Fi (continued from page 82) dinky little cranked-cylinder gadget would come to this? It's all for real, however, and is actually a new overground area in stereo hi-fi that includes other types of components, each of which crowds or tops the $10,000 mark. This heady realm is populated by a new breed of hi-fi buff known as a high-ender. For this dedicated fidelity devotee, audio could become more important than eating. He is turned on not only by the unmatched sound of such equipment but also by its exquisitely detailed construction, the attention lavished by its manufacturers on every aspect of the product, from its painstakingly engineered innards to the visual appeal of its housing and the sexy compliance of its controls. Using such equipment becomes an immersion in a special kind of experience that is almost tactile and visceral as well as audiological.

At its extreme, catering to such tastes can become a matter more complex than custom-tailoring a new suit. For example, Wilson does not merely sell you his system; he literally fine-tunes it to a specific environment. The entire process, from initial acoustic measurements through the final setup, takes three days.

The amplifiers used in such systems are chosen from a select group of products currently in favor among high enders. One is the Krell KMA-200, a mono (single-channel) power amp conservatively rated for 200-watt output. A pair for stereo comes to $7500. Among preamps now in favor are the Krell KRS-1, at $6500; the Swiss Physics SP-1, at $4000; the Dennesen JC-80 (actually a pair of mono preamps), at $3500; and the Spectral DMC-10, a stereo unit with a separate power supply to minimize hum and noise. Its price is $2795. An additional $60 gets you a see-through cover for viewing the DMC-10's gold-plated circuit boards. If you've got it, baby, flaunt it!

While the choice of amplification equipment is relatively wide, there are only two FM tuners that this group considers suitable mates for its supersystems. One is the Sequerra Model 1, a $5000 unit featuring built-in analyzers that display the characteristics of a received signal. At only $1195, the Tandberg TPT 3001A is a surprisingly inexpensive alternative that many claim outperforms the Sequerra.

The most striking entry in the rarefied realm of high-end equipment is the Goldmund Reference turntable. It looks like a piece of machinery from a space station and--without a tonearm--costs a cool $12,900. Many, even among the high enders, are satisfied with the lower-priced Goldmund Studio, which sells for a paltry $2500--also minus a tonearm. The $7000 Nakamichi TX-1000 (without tonearm but with a separate motor for centering a disc on the spindle) has a following, while an entry from Denon, the Model DP-100M ($6200 with a servo-controlled tonearm), is considered by many to be an excellent alternative.

Turntable manufacturers, as a rule, also offer tonearms, but there are tonearm specialists whose products have a unique appeal. Prominent among this small group right now is the $1400 Dennesen ABLT-1. It's a linear model with air bearings that has a claimed tracking error of zero degrees. You can't get much better than that.

In phono cartridges, the universally favored type is a moving coil. But which one? Many would pick the $3500 lapislazuli Kiseki, a hand-built cartridge that's about as exotic as the semiprecious stone it's made from. There's also a following for another Japanese entry, the Koetsu onyx Signature ($2250), while from Dutch designer A. J. van den Hul comes the Type 1, which, at $1250, is claimed by many to do as fine a job as any other in tracing record grooves.

How does the new digital sound, specifically in the form of the compact disc (CD), fit into this picture? Some high enders welcome the CD as a superior program source with which they can show off their splendid sound systems. Others feel that while digital sound can be better than analog sound in theory, not all CDs really deliver the kind of legendary sonic superiority their manufacturers claim for them.

Countering this view is one that holds that the high enders' indifference to the CD is motivated by a desire to perpetuate a kind of cultist tweakery that has grown up around analog turntables, tonearms and moving-coil cartridges.

This attitude, in turn, relates to the relatively low interest high enders have in tape recorders and an understandable paucity of tape decks aimed at this group. In cassette decks, the current favorites are the Tandberg TCD 3014, at $1395, and the Nakamichi Dragon, at $1850. For open-reel devotees, there's the Mark Levinson ML-5, at $14,400, which accepts reels of up to 12 1/2 inches in diameter and runs at the pro speeds of 15 and 30 inches per second. Other favored units include the $9000 STC Nagra, with ten-and-a-half-inch open-reel adapters, and the similarly priced Stellavox.

Does high-end audio succeed in its heaven-storming ambitions? Of course it does. All you need to convince yourself of this is to attend a demonstration. Combine Wilson's WAMM with a pair of Krell power amps, a Goldmund turntable and a Kiseki cartridge and, brother, you'll have your sonic socks blown off.

But don't feel left out because your budget can't match your new-found taste for great sound. Like a Ferrari or a Rolls-Royce, high-end audio has a limited market. However, it continues to goad the rest of the hi-fi industry, keeping the mainstream manufacturers on their sonic toes. As a result, a good deal of high-end theory and practice does filter down to broader levels to make for better stereo products in all price ranges. High-end audio remains the peak of the mountain, but the entire terrain is beautiful as a result, and there is much beauty along the slopes that is very affordable.

"Does high-end audio succeed in its heaven-storming ambitions? Of course it does."