January 7, 2005 - Part 2

New from the very fertile mind of Albert Von Schweikert is the six-way, multi-piece, partially powered VR-9SE ($60,000 per pair), which uses "adaptive room correction...for accurate sound in any environment." Its performance was detailed and delicate in a large room, but we suspect that these speakers can play raucous and loud when the music demands it. [www.vonschweikertaudio.com]

Shown here are the insides of Ampzilla's new 2000 amplifier ($6000), including one of the largest transformers we've seen. The 2000 comes in either black or a decidedly rich-looking blue, and a vertically oriented stack of six of them looked serious and sounded fine driving VMPS speakers.

More solid-state amplification. Coda showed the new S1 balanced monoblock amplifier ($3950 each) which outputs a healthy 220 watts but runs in full class A up to 50 watts, or 500 watts if you limit the class-A output to 20 watts. The bias is set at the factory according to the customer's preference.

Here's something unique. Duvel introduced the new battery-powered Shuttle Disk CD player (top, $4900). Joining it on the bottom is the new Shuttle integrated amplifier ($5600), which puts out 70Wpc but requires a mains connection.

Magico's premiere product, the Mini stand-mounted speaker ($20,000 per pair including stands) features a Scan-Speak Super Revelator tweeter and a woofer comprised of vapor-deposited titanium. The distinctive grain structure of the wood...

...is a result of its multi-layer Baltic Birch sandwich construction.