You may have read our “must see” list for RMAF that we published last week in our fall newsletter. This post checks off three must see items, two of which are debuts of newer versions of products we were already familiar with. And, I can assure you, all three of these debuts bring something new and exciting to the market.
QLN Prestige Three Speakers
In the Well Pleased AV room, Mark Sosa had several debut products including the Qln Prestige Three speakers that cost $10,000. I have had a long relationship with these Swedish speakers. In fact, I owned a pair in the early eighties, and then they disappeared from North America. Now, Mark has brought them back. I had the privilege of reviewing the Qln Signature 3 Loudspeakers back in January, and they were superb.
Now Qln has a new speaker, well sort of new. The Prestige Three incorporates over four decades of speaker research, development, design and construction. Based on the classic Qln Signature 3, it even uses the same drivers. It’s also time aligned with a leaning cabinet and a truncated pyramid cabinet top that minimizes the baffle area around the divers. The result is a two-way floor standing design where many parts have come from the Qln Signature 3.
The cabinet construction uses Qln’s unique Qboard® technology that eliminates structural resonances. The bass reflex port with its trumpet shape at both ends helps to eliminates air turbulence. The cabinet is de-coupled from the floor via solid feet with cones and pucks constructed out of hard, high-damping materials.
The crossover, however, has been redesigned, and major parts have been improved based on years of experience and many hours of listening tests. It’s now hardwired with non-inductive capacitors for the tweeter and high-end, oil-filled capacitors for the woofer with flat foil inductors used at the most critical places. All components are fastened with damping glue and the remaining coils are baked to avoid any internal component and filter resonances.
At the show, I was really impressed with the pure musicality of the sound from the Prestige Three speakers and with the holistic three-dimensionality of the soundstage. I did not hear this combination of musicality and a multi-dimensional soundstage from many speakers that cost thee or four times as much. I think most people came to this room to hear the Innuos Statement Music Server demonstration, but I hope they left with the love I have had over the years for Qln speakers.
Innuos Statement Music Server
Mark Sosa also had the debut of the long-awaited Innuos Statement Music Server ($13,750), and it was exciting to finally get to see and hear it. The Statement is the result of everything the people at Innuos have learned about making a computer into a real source for digital music. Its massive power supply has eight independent power rails. Thus, it can offer extremely clean power to the USB board and the clock. The clock, which handles Ethernet and USB inputs, is a 3ppb OCXO and should, in theory, do away with jitter and “phase noise”. The custom motherboard design is intended to sequester and eliminate EMI.
The room was set up for A/B comparisons to their previous top of the line music server. In the picture, the two-box Reference is on the left, and on the right is the ZENith SE Mk.II above the Aqua Formula xHD DAC. Yes, the Statement was airier, had a more three-dimensional soundstage and more detail. It was in fact the most digital music I have ever experienced.
I have to admit that what really amazed me was that while the Statement was incredible, the ZENith SE MK.II was also the best digital I had ever heard except for the Reference and the little Zen Mini I’m using at home, which is the best I’ve heard in my system. So, it seems to me that the people at Innuos really know their way around when it comes to making music servers.
Vanatoo Transparent One Encore
Seattle-based Vanatoo is one of my favorite audio companies, so let me start by saying I’m sorry I didn’t get a better picture of the new speaker. They were showing the Vanatoo Transparent One Encore powered speaker at $599.00 per pair. The speakers will be shipping in the fourth quarter, and if you pre-order them, you can get them for $499.00.
The new Transparent One Encore amps are rated at 60 watts per amp. It is a two-way that contains four class-D amps plus a DSP crossover. I was shocked that these speakers sounded better than my Transparent Zeros. Yes, I expected a little more bass, but the Transparent One Encore is simply a more refined-sounding speaker. It produces a large sound with deeper and tighter bass and a more delicate top end. Don’t misread that last comment. It’s only the top end that is delicate; this speaker sounds big and bold.
