High Water Sound

My vote for best sound of the show goes to High Water Sound and the mighty organizational skills of HWS head honcho Jeff Catalano. Of course, Jeff’s choice of components aided the beautiful, highly resolving and dare I say – tonally precise – presentation. Here was pure reproduction, or as Lavorgna tagged it, “anti hi-fi,” that instantly struck me as right. A T.W. Acoustic Raven Turntable ($10,000) and (2) Da Vinci Audio Labs 12” tone arms ($5,500) outfitted with Dynavector XV1S ($4k) and Miyabi 47 carts ($4k) into a Tron Seven phono stage ($4k) fed an Ongaku preamp ($$$$$$) leading to an 8 watt SilverTone Model 3.2 tube amp ($6,000). The exceptional Horning Agathons ($12k) were juiced via Z Cables; Stealth and Harmonix wires also joined the components, which found cleansing via Sound Applications. Oh yea, a Reimyo CD player was available for any fool not content with the vinyl spectacular to be heard here.

Part of the fun at High Water is watching Jeff react to his surroundings, whether that means declaring his love for a certain CD or simply getting all pissy over the incredible low end garbage seeping through the wall from a neighboring exhibitor’s overheated system. Like the music his rigs produce, Jeff Catalano is for real.

Audio Note

The two Audio Note rooms also produced clearly superior sound. The Audio Note UK room enjoyed the supervision of Peter Qvortrup, who regaled Michael and I with stories about the various schools of European piano thought and his opinion on the miserable state of current US music. Here, ladies and gentlemen, is a man with fire in his belly and gold in his ears! Audio Note AN-E Sogon speakers, DAC 4.1, Kegon monoblocks, M8 preamplifier, CDT Two and a big white turntable achieved exceptional tonality and purity of musical line. You could relax with this rig and not marvel at its sonics – the sound was like spring rain, not summer fireworks. Qvortrup was cagey regarding prices, but $400,000 was the figure bandied about by listeners.

Just as enjoyable for a little less green was the rig on display from Josh Turney of Audio Note’s new US importer, Metropolitan Music. Playing Milt Jackson and Monty Alexander’s classic ‘70s era Pablo LP, Soul Fusion, the Audio Note “junior” system as I like to call it, was all about tonality and relaxation, though dynamics and extension were also excellent. Jackson’s vibraphone was oh so natural, as were Alexander’s flowing piano lines and the Senssuround brushwork of drummer Jeff Hamilton. If you don’t own this LP or CD, what are you waiting for? Josh’s system was comprised of a $1,500 Audio Note TT1 turntable, CDT 3 CD player, 8 watt SET Kageki monoblocks ($30,000), AN-E Lx Signature speakers ($12,000), M8 Preamplifier ($30,000), DAC 4, and all Audio Note cabling. Granted, even these prices are beyond mere mortals, but this kind of quality sound puts everything in perspective, and sets a standard for which we can all aim, deep pockets or not.