| Audio Emporium
Newsletter B&W
AWS-610XP Subwoofer, $1200: (12 1/4h, 12 1/4w, 14 3/4d) B&W
has been promising this high performing subwoofer for a year. When it finally came out a
couple of months ago the actual design was changed a bit from the initial description. The
610XP has a massive 10” cast frame, Kevlar/pulp fiber subwoofer driver with a
humongous magnet structure. It features a long throw design with powerful four inch voice
coil! It is mated with a 500w power amp. The
result is an attractively sized sub with big time performance. Most medium sized subs
thump a little or boom a lot. ASW-610XP drops barbells on the floor and isn’t a
single note performer. Now that we’ve had it a while we’re confident you’ll
be suitably impressed, whether your use is for music, movies, or both. Given its modest
size and price, this is a sub that lends itself nicely to being used in pairs. A single
sub is usually fine. But running a pair of high quality subs adds bass and avoids the
propensity for identifying sub location. To
give you a frame of reference, we think it sounds deeper & stronger than ASW-700,
which has sold for $1300 for about five years. The ASW-700 has been one of the best subs
for the money for that time frame. We’re happy to up the performance a notch for a
few bucks less. Marantz
CD-5003 $350, Single Play CD Player We’ve
been bragging up that this guy is the new king of budget CD players since it came out
recently. It is by far the best built player we’ve EVER seen for $350ish! It is built
quite competitively with the Rotel at $700! Its analog section sounds very good- clearer
than predecessors or comparably price competitors. It also has a coax and toslink out. Go
to our LATEST section and download the review. Marantz couldn’t have written a better
one themselves! Peachtree
4.5 Speakers, $660pr The
popular Decco is now available with matching speakers made by ERA. Called the Peachtree
4.5 (Peachtree owns ERA), these little guys match the black Decco with rounded corners and
elegant gloss finish. Musically, they’re the same as the ERA D4, featuring a cast 4”
woofer and 1” soft dome tweet. They sound just like the ERA D4s- very impressive! ERA
models are still available but the 4.5 keeps the cute rounded style of the Decco and soon
to arrive Nova! Kimber Kable
SACDs, $21 ea. We
now have four Kimber Kable SACDs in stock. They
have been recorded with Kimber’s unique IsoMike system and will be among the finest
sounding CDs you’ve ever heard! They also have they hybrid track for use on non SACD
players. Three of the four feature string quartets from Beethoven, Haydn & others. The
4th disc features group vocal. The spacing and ambience on these discs are
groundbreaking! Chopin Sonata #2&3 By Marc-Andre Hamelin Last month Pollini- this month Hamelin- plays the big Chopin Sonata Op 35 (Hyperion CDA67706). It is coupled with Sonata #3 and four other tasty morsels. The playing is great. The sound is stupendous. How spoiled are we, that for the price of a couple of CDs (Pollini on DG last month & Hamelin on Hyperion this month) we have the best piano playing, and sound, of one of the greatest of the great piano works- Op35- within 30 days of each other?! |